Hey, will you hear me tonight?
Are you willing to let me unwind?
My love's at the door, my heart's on the floor
And the dancers waltz on it all night

I'm a sucker for songs about the performance situation, about the mental and physical tightrope walk that an artist must make to put a performance across convincingly. Scott Miller's 'Can You Hear Me Tonight' is one of those set openers that is a perfect vehicle for what he does on his latest CD and in his concerts. Miller uses the tune to establish an instant rapport, and that was exactly what happened at Rudyard's Pub Friday night. By the time he'd finished the song, the audience was with him. And he never lost them.

Off stage, Mr. Miller is a quiet, unassuming fellow. Before he went on stage, he handed me a CD and said, "I hope you like it. It doesn't look like much, but it's all mine."

"Are You With Me?" is an extremely satisfying and fulfilling set of acoustic solos that Miller has been performing since the V-Roys dissolved late last year. It can be typed as folk or Americana - if you need a type. His voice has an Appalachian quality, and his guitar picking says that he probably has a fairly close familiarity with records by the Carter family and some of the bluegrass legends. His lyrics hit you right in your frontal lobe.

For someone so young, Mr. Miller has a mature eye for detail, a gift for unpretentious but potent lyrics, a deft ability to set his visions to poetry, and a humorous streak inherent in our most successful traveling minstrels. He has a wide range of styles and deliveries. He can get surly and snarly on cuts like 'Across The Line,' 'Bastard's Only Child' and 'Mess of This Town' or he can tone it down to heart-wrenching intimacy on tunes like 'Good Morning Midnight' or the V-Roys 'Lie I Believe.'

A product of the Virginia's Shenandoah valley, Miller can match the likes of Steve Earle when it comes to mining the depths of the Civil War and constructing a song that puts the listener right there on the front lines in the soldier's boots. In the eerie and tragic 'The Rain,' Miller sings as a scared young soldier waiting in the rain for an attack. When the assault finally comes, the men's rifles fail to fire and their position is overrun by the enemy.

The rain, it should bring life, boys, or at least a brief respite
You can rest and wait for night, boys, but keep your powder dry
Or the rain, it will take your life.

If there has been better train song than 'Amtrak Crescent' written in the past few years, I haven't heard it. A tale of leaving New Orleans and taking the train north in search of a second chance, Miller sets the mood with "I bought the cheapest ticket and I carried my clothes/Blood beneath my eyes from a broken nose/'Cause when life goes wrong, this train goes on."

Miller also reprises the V-Roys' 'Goodnight, Loser' and the plaintive examination of one-sided love, 'Lie I Believe.' Miller's lyric borders on open heart surgery.

If you stand naked, the mirror won't lie
But it has to be filtered through the wish of an eye
All that I needed was your reflection of me
You said I was someone, it's the lie I believe

Miller has just recorded a new album for Sugar Hill Records that will be released in June which will include some of the songs on "Are You With Me" as well as some previously unrecorded material. Bluegrass stalwart Tim O'Brien and Texas guitar wizard David Grissom worked on the recording, which was produced by the well traveled roots rocker R. S. Field. With his new road band, The Commonwealth, Miller previewed the album at Rudyard's Pub Friday night.

I sat at a table with Commonwealth bassist Jared "Shade" Reynolds (Pumpskully, Trent Summar & the New Row Mob) as Miller took the stage with his acoustic guitar and a harmonica holder and launched into 'Can You Hear Me Tonight.' Reynolds and I had been discussing how little reaction the opening band, Swag, had gotten from the small crowd despite excellent musicianship and original material. Reynolds, who along with drummer Jimmy Lester (Webb Wilder, Los Straightjackets) and lead guitarist Rob McNelley, was playing only his third gig with Miller, said, "Don't worry, he just gets up there and wins 'em over." And sure enough, when the song ended the audience erupted with applause, whoops and hollers. Reynolds gave me an "I told you so" look.

Miller went into the mean and gritty 'Cross The Line.' As he got to the bridge before the final stanza, the band walked on stage with perfect timing and turned the solo strummer into a full-blown rock song. Now I know how those people at Royal Albert Hall must have felt when Bob Dylan drew back the curtain to reveal The Band, picked up his Stratocaster and the ended the folk era with a single power chord.

And that's exactly what Miller did ­ only he picked up a Telecaster and blasted into 'Mess of This Town' after talking a little smack to the audience that was a perfect set up for the song. Despite their lack of experience with each other ("we're just out riding around in the van seeing if we can stand to be around each other," Miller joked), the band was rock solid, working their way through several crescendos that brought on that fine sense of joyous pandemonium that a rock band is supposed to deliver. When the song ended, the little crowd went crazy. I noticed many of the musicians had moved up close to get a look and they were all giving each other those significant looks.

As each band on the bill only had a one-hour time slot, Miller charged on through the set without slowing the tempo at all. 'Loving That Girl Is Hard On a Man' rocked through several tempo changes, building then falling, then building again as Miller sang "Coal turns to diamonds inside of my hand/Lovin' that girl is too hard on a man."

'I Ain't No Miracle Worker' featured some wicked guitar licks from Rob McNelly as he and Miller dueled center stage. 'Goddamn The Sun' was another hard rocker, with McNelley and Reynolds doing some fine harmony singing.

And just like that, the hour was almost up. The band walked off and Miller closed the set with the tongue-in-cheek demi-gospel number, 'Is There Room On Your Cross For Me?'

Scott Miller has a soft, sensitive side and can do the acoustic singer-songwriter thing with the best. But if you don't want to get run over by a highballin' freight train possibly bound for hell, you'd best not get in front of Scott Miller and The Commonwealth, because they don't care whether you want to rock or not. You're gonna get rocked. The thing that makes Scott Miller special is that he can do either with great effectiveness and polish.

If you like singer-songwriter CD's, don't miss out on Miller's "Are You With Me?" because it is as good as it gets in the solo acoustic mode. If you're a rocker, catch one of his Scott Miller and The Commonwealth shows while you wait for the release of "Thus To All Tyrants" in June. Whatever mode Mr. Miller is in, he's worth a listen.

Hey, will you hear me tonight?
Well, I promise not to take too much time
My words are all true, I'm lying to you
But the lies that you hear are all mine.
And hey, did you hear 'em all rhyme?

Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

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