Roots Reanimator

NOW AND THEN, some distinctive country and blues picking that I don’t recognize will surface on local Americana radio. It quite often turns out to be a solo on one of Eilen Jewell’s records that perks up my ears. Through YouTube, I was able to discover the creator of the solos was long-time Jewell bandmate Jerry Miller — not the Moby Grape member of the same name but an equally prodigious player who, like the Grape guitarist, possesses a musical vocabulary spanning blues, country and jazz. This Miller gets to exhibit his extensive and expansive lexicon of licks on Jewell’s latest record, Gypsy (Signature Sounds).

Speaking to from his current home in Bloomington, Indiana, Jerry Miller reveals that he came by his country chops while growing up around Nashville in the ’60s, where he was exposed to