Music Reviews: George Harrison’s Pal, Joe Brown, plus John R. Miller and Collective Soul

Have you watched Concert for George, the film of the memorial show held on the first anniversary of George Harrison’s passing? If you have, you witnessed performances by some of popular music’s best-known acts, including Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr. But you also saw a prominently featured artist whose name likely rang no bells at all.

That was Joe Brown, who delivered the show’s last song, “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” at the request of the late Beatle’s widow, Olivia. He also performed Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun” as well as “That’s the Way It Goes,” one of his own UK singles, earlier in the concert.

Though virtually unknown outside his home country, Brown has been making music for six decades in England, where he has had several Top 5 hits, including 1962’s lilting “A Picture of You,” his most famous number. Moreover, he was close to Harrison, who was his neighbor for some years, served as best man at his second wedding, and shared his love of the ukulele. Brown played on Harrison’s Gone Troppo and Brainwashed LPs.

For a look at what music listeners throughout most of the world have been missing, check out Joe Brown in Concert, which previously appeared as a two-CD-plus-DVD set in 2019 and has just been reissued without the video at a lower price. Recorded, produced, and mixed by Brown’s son, Pete, the album preserves a 2002 concert near London. It features Brown on guitar, ukulele, and mandolin along with three backup musicians.

The show is warmly delivered and engaging, though you might find it uneven if your tastes aren’t as wide-ranging as Brown’s. And “wide-ranging” is putting it mildly, because this 30-song concert recording, which features an acoustic set on Disc One and an electric performance on Disc Two, is all over the place musically.

There’s gospel (“Amazing Grace” and an a cappella “Rock My Soul”). There’s pop (“Memories Are Made of This,” the Dean Martin hit) and pop-rock (the aforementioned “A Picture of You” and Herman’s Hermits’ “Henry the Eighth”). There’s skiffle (Lonnie Donegan’s “The Rock Island Line”) and country (Charlie Rich’s “Lonely Weekends” and Merle Haggard’s “Honky Tonk Night Time Man”). There’s traditional folk (“Sally Ann,” “Man of Constant Sorrow,” and “She Moves Through the Fair”). And there’s rock (Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues,” Buddy Holly’s “Well…All Right,” the Everly Brothers’ “Bird Dog,” and Chuck Berry’s “Forty Days”).

The program suggests possible reasons Brown never achieved international success, but it also explains why he earned Harrison’s admiration and has attracted enough of a fan base to survive six decades in the music business. On the one hand, almost none of his material is self-penned, and his repertoire is likely too diverse for the many listeners’ who tend to gravitate toward just certain kinds of music. But he’s a talented instrumentalist, and his vocals and personality project charm, authenticity, and a love of performing. At his best, such as on the catchy “A Picture of You,” he can put a smile on your face and make you want to sing along.

John R. Miller’s ‘Great Unknowing’ Is Pretty Great

John R. Miller, who debuted in 2021 with an album called Depreciated, has since issued several more CDs that deliver on the first one’s promise with excellent guitar work, assertive vocals, and witty, sharply honed lyrics. The latest, The Great Unknowing, might be the best collection yet from this alt-country singer/songwriter.

Recorded at the late Leon Russell’s studio in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the CD features Miller on electric and acoustic guitar and a backup band that adds synth, accordion, fiddle, organ, piano, pedal steel, dobro, and more. Miller co-produced the record with Nashville-based guitarist Adam Meisterhans, who, like Miller, grew up in West Virginia.

The Great Unknowing bears comparison to works by the singer’s stated influences, who include Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, and Townes Van Zandt. Other good reference points are John Prine, James McMurtry, and Warren Zevon.

The new album’s program incorporates four covers, among them an excellent reading of Dire Straits’ “Walk of Life,” but none of them outshine the set’s 12 originals. Many of those feature protagonists facing despair, alienation, and hard luck, as you can tell by titles such as “Day Drinking,” “Two Days Clean,” “Don’t Bet on Me,” and “Looking for a Place to Die.”

Such numbers might have been drawn from personal experience, but, in any event, Miller sounds like a man who has survived whatever demons he has fought and is now savoring his circumstances. “If you could only see me now,” he sings at one point, “drinking gin and bumming cigarettes / Smiling wide ’cause I’ve got no regrets, about how life’s been kind to me.”

Collective Soul’s Not Entirely ‘Nostalgic Trip’

The latest album from Atlanta’s Platinum-selling Collective Soul, Touch and Go, is being touted as a “nostalgic trip back to the ’80s…taking inspiration from the Cars and new wave music.” Those influences are apparent from the opening percussion and guitar chords of the first track, and at various points throughout the record, whose title echoes the name of a song on the Cars’ third LP.

Still, don’t expect a completely reinvented or anachronistic approach on Collective Soul’s 13^th studio album, whose 10 tracks were all composed by group prime mover and lead vocalist Ed Roland. Despite its new wave embellishments, the CD sounds like the work of the same Beatles-influenced band that delivered such past winners as 2024’s Here to Eternity.

The pop-flavored LP’s lushly produced, rhythmic songs employ relatable lyrics about relationships and emotions. And like the songs on earlier Collective Soul albums, they feature strong melodies, passionate vocals, and effective use of synthesizers, percussion, and guitar. The phrase “ear candy” could have been invented to describe such addictive, anthemic numbers as “Feel,” “Shooting for You,” and “Rainbow.”