Miller Anderson - Bright City (1971 uk, excellent guitar blues with folk and jazz tinges)

Miller Anderson, the Scots born singer, guitarist, and songwriter, came to fame with the Keef Hartley band, which established him as a well respected frontman. He joined the band in 1968 and stayed with Hartley for some three years, during which time the\d hard, became However it seemed that Miller and Keel didn't always get on too well and Miller left the band in 1971.

“Bright City” was Andersons first solo album for which he additionally wrote all the material. It was first released on Deram Records in 1971. The songs, including, Alice Mercy from(Whom It Max Concern)”. "The Age of Progress", "Nothing In This World", and "Bright City", remind us what a line singer has been missing from mainstream rock these past few years.

Among those helping him out were Neil Hubbard (guitar), the late Gary Thain (bass), who later joined Uriah Heep, Mick Weaver, (sometimes known as Wynder K. Frogg) and Peter Dines, on keyboards. Session man Lynn Dobson from the Manfred Mann band played flute, while Eric Dillon was on drums. Producer Neil Slaven sat in on percussion. Adding backing vocals were Madeline Bell, Tracey Miller and Liza Strike. Thain, Dines, and Weaver all played on Keel Hartley's albums, so Miller was using mostly familiar faces to present his own music to the world. But getting a "name" in the music biz is harder than it looks, and back in the early seventies at least, Keel Hartley still had the pulling power that Miller Anderson lacked on his own.

For a while Miller had his own band called Hemlock with James Leveron (bass) and Eric Dillon (drums). It was a struggle to establish themselves and they joined forces with Ken Simmonds and Stan Webb (ex-Chicken Shack), to form a new version of the Savoy Brown Blues Band which went on a brief tour of America in the Spring of 1974. In the same year, Anderson rejoined Keef Hartley and the\d a new band called Dog Soldier.

The group released only one album of the same name for United Artists, Anderson then teamed up with Man Nolan, in 1976, in what proved to be the last version of T.Rex, working alongside Dino Dines (keyboards), Herbie Flowers (bass), and Tony Newman (drums). T.Rex hit the road with the punk group The Damned on the  "Dandy In the Underworld Tour" in 1977. Bolan was sadly killed in a car accident in 1977, and the- band broke up.

Miller carried on working and earned the respect, if not the fame and fortune, of his contemporaries, Today he continues to write and perform and reminds us of a regarding aspect of the thriving Seventies music scene that now seems like a bye gone age.

Tracks
1. Alice Mercy (To Whom It May Concern) - 6:43
2. The Age Of Progress - 3:27
3. Nothing In This World - 4:15
4. Bright City - 3:04
5. Grey Broken Morning - 4:26
6. High Tide, High Water - 7:53
7. Shadows 'Cross My Wall - 6:02

Musicians
*Gary Thain - Bass Guitar
*Eric Dillon - Drums
*Neil Hubbard - Guitars (tracks: A1, B2.)
*Peter Dines - Organ, Piano
*Lyn Dobson - Flute
*Mick Weaver - Organ, Piano, Harpsichord, Congas
*Miller Anderson - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
*Junior Campbell - Strings Arrangements

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