Trent Miller lyrically creates a woeful Gothic rich, revisionist version of the old west on his latest ode to the unforgiving frontier, ‘Welcome To Inferno Valley’.
His grizzled broody – and slightly Irish burr – atavistic timbre sounds totally at ease singing about a tragic miscreant marauders tale of love, violence, and repentance. It comes as some surprise to find out that our despondent prairie drifting anti-hero is originally from entirely different old country, Italy, and now resides in London – a million miles away from the landscapes he so eloquently alludes to.
Loosely following a story, the albums 12-tracks connect together through a concomitant theme of resigned fate; an unfolding eulogy in fact, narrated by our protagonist as he faces his maker, waiting to die beneath the “gospel oak” (‘Balled Of The Gospel Oak’); poetically explaining how it all came to be.
The opening rustic serenade of ‘Inferno Valley’, is a introduction to the troubling tale: Miller runs the gauntlet after mistakenly shooting a lover, instead of his intended rival. From then on, our scorned outlaw is on the run; passing through a Waterboys-esque, ‘Last Chance Motel’, and riding along the Dylan sounding, ‘Nowhere Road’, all the while dipping back into the painfully cold, romanticized back-story – well, I say romanticized, if that’s how you’d describe songs about murdering your girl and dumping her body in a “mossy sea” (‘Down In The Valley’), and dancing in the pale moonlight with the devil (‘Witch Trails’).
Miller’s equally macabre styled Skeleton Jive band, provide a subtle and delicate framework for the evocative melodies to hang from. A pining violin is used in the manner of a lead guitar, whilst wafts of restrained banjo, 12-string, mandolin and trumpet breath steadily in the background, producing a suitable Gene Clark imbued feel, by way of The Bad Seeds.
‘Welcome To Inferno Valley’ is a throwback: a particularly accomplished and soulful one at that. Whilst there’s nothing inherently original here, and there is a dependence on the country-rock of Gram Parsons – ‘Fear Of Flyin’ could be one of his lost nuggets from the Flying Burrito Brothers years – Miller’s expressive and chilled tones have a striking quality, and his tunes prove hauntingly memorable.
Released: 07/06/2011
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Comments
Nice review, I liked the way you looked at the album as a story. I do think the album is original. The way Trent uses the sound of the harmonica and violin together is a sound I ain’t much heard before. Some of the albums quieter songs KEY TO HER HEART and MURDER LOVE are very pretty little ditties and sound highly contemporary but with a foot placed firmly in the past.
Thanks Jason. Whilst it does have a firm foot in the past, the quiet dynamics do give it a refreshing feel. An artist worth watching.