Notes by Duck Baker 　　 　　Joe Miller is a fun person to know. He's well informed about a wide range of subjects, cooks pretty well, and is polite enough to laugh at my jokes. What more could you ask from a friend, other than maybe losing at ping pong once in a while? 　　 　　He also happens to be a very fine fingerpicker. A lot of players have a hard time topping their first albums, but Joe has managed it here, even though he somehow neglected to record any of MY tunes (which he did do last time). He does play a piece by Eric Lugosch - one of my favorite writers for the instrument - but Joe's own compositions are strong enough that I think his only reason for playing anything by Eric and me is to salve our pride after all those thrashings at the ping pong table. 　　 　　He also tips his hat to two old masters. Reverend Gary Davis was a blind street singer from North Carolina who developed an amazingly complex and unique guitar style. In later life he lived in New York City and taught any number of aspiring blues players, some of whom, like Stefan Grossman and Jorma Kaukonen, went on to become well-known players in their own right. Joe's arrangement of Buck Dance shows an ability to add his own ideas that fit Davis's music perfectly. He stays closer to the original for a spirited rendering of Victory Rag, which was written by Maybelle Carter, best known for her bass-run style playing on Carter Family Classics like Wildwood Flower. 　　 　　These two pieces can serve to show where fingerpicking comes from, but ever since Merle Travis and Chet Atkins got into the act in the 40s and 50s, aspiring guitarists have had greatly expanded horizons. In the 60s and 70s, for instance, we all wanted to play ragtime on the guitar. And why not? It's challenging to be sure, but in some ways ragtime is almost better suited to guitar than to the piano. Joe's playing of Silver Swan, which he learned from a Ton van Bergeyk recording, is a good example. 　　 　　Zez Confrey's novelty compositions like Kitten on the Keys and Dizzy Fingers are generally classified as novelty tunes, a category related to ragtime but more inclined to high jinks than profound statements. My fingers get dizzy just listening to this. 　　 　　Jelly Roll Morton, who wrote Grandpa's Spells, can be seen as a link between ragtime and jazz, which in fact he claimed to have invented. He had plenty of novelty-time humor in his tunes, as this one, which hilariously evokes an old man's "fits", shows. But his pieces have a lot more going for them: great melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic complexity and a sense of development that is spellbinding. This arrangement comes from that rising paragon of ragtime and swing fingerpicking, Pat Donohue. 　　 　　If these tunes don't change your concept of what solo guitar playing can sound like, give a listen to the old fiddle tune Fire on the Mountain. Even though I've been playing and listening to this kind of music for most of my life, I had to kind of blink my ears a couple of times when I heard this - the illusion of two guitars is that strong. Joe also shows that he's not afraid of arranging challenging material like the first movement of Charles Ives' Second Symphony. This particular movement is tame compared to much of what the great maverick composer produced; it is also a serious and affecting piece of music. I can't help thinking that Ives would have been tickled to hear this version. 　　 　　Of Joe's own pieces, Next Piece represents the latest logical progression in his composing. The structure of it, eclectic feel (it evokes ragtime, folk song, and rock and roll), and especially the harmonies indicate a confidence and adventurousness that make me, for one, eager to hear what's after "next". 　　 　　For players, it's a kick to analyze the nuts and bolts of the very considerable technique on display - like the up-and-down arpeggio effect that is especially evident on Next Piece. But it's also fun just to listen. 　　 　　Duck Baker 　　Leesburg, Virginia 　　October, 1992