Customer Reviews

Bosque Brown Plays Mara Lee Miller

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Mara Lee Miller's stage persona, Bosque Brown, is anything but a stage-name-gimmick. In her debut album, Ms. Miller shows us that she understands the rural Texas folk idiom from which she springs, and she knows how to make it live for today.

In Bosque Brown plays Mara Lee Miller, she sings spare self-penned anthems of longing, loneliness,and love. Although she is aware of the Austin-spawned Texana music, she is anything but trapped in the singer/songwriter mode. Instead, she's trying to mine the earlier traditions of folk and country music, with a straight-ahead spare delivery and a plaintive, delicate voice.
Her work reminds one of songs from the core of the Americana tradition--whether the Carter Family's taproot confessionals or
the sensation of first hearing Jean Ritchie's mountain dulcimer
Appalachian traditionals.

Every song here is spare, solid, and alive. She's no mere folk archivist, but instead writes original material with real verve, a traditionalist in a new lyrical setting. Her lyrics and vocal style have a sense of economy--no needless histrionics, but instead striaghtforward lines into the mainstreams of emotion.

This is the debut album of someone with the potential to be a very important artist indeed. More importantly, though, this is an album worth owning as a living thing, and not as a promise of things to come.

Mara Lee Miller and Bosque Brown are one and the same. She sings songs that make us all feel as though we live in her world. It's a world with a lot of sadness and loss, but it's a world in which
the life of the spirit is lived. This album is well worth owning.

bosque brown (real name mara lee miller hence the title) has made an album of beautiful and timeless music. imagine a young dolly parton singing music in the vein of hank williams and cat power. cat power is a good place to begin as both her and chan have those raw naturally beautiful southern voices that have fascinated listeners for decades. she is truly an artist uncorrupted by the music industry. damien jurado heard a demo of hers given to him by her husband while in texas and he loved it so much he flew her up to make an album with him and david bazan before she had even played her first show. her live performance is just as haunting (if not more) than the album itself. with songcraft and a voice like this there's not enough positive things that i can say about her.