Track Listing

1. Summons
2. Freedom's A Stranger
3. Wild Things
4. Still People Are Moving
5. The Only Road
6. Only Everything
7. 8 Miles A Gallon
8. Jody
9. Hawks And Doves
10. Say Ho
11. On A Roll
12. Long Goodnight

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35469 in Music
• Released on: 2006-03-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Amazon.com
The third solo album by the former V-Roys frontman combines the storytelling of a Tennessee troubadour with the reckless soul of a diehard rocker. It's been a long time since even Bruce Springsteen has recorded an anthem as Springsteenesque as the opening "Freedom's a Stranger," with a hard-twanging cover of Neil Young's "Hawks and Doves" (timely once again) also showing Miller's affinity for rock classicism. The country romp through "Say Ho" provides an impromptu history lesson on Sam Houston, while the solo acoustic closer, "Long Goodnight," is likely the bleakest lullaby you'll ever hear. Across the range of musical territory that Miller covers, he combines an expressively reedy voice with an eye for significant detail. This project plainly found a kindred spirit in legendary producer Jim Dickinson (patriarch of the North Mississppi Allstars, with sideman credits from the Rolling Stones to Ry Cooder), who has long shown a preference for first-take immediacy and passion over polish. On "Still People Are Moving," the song begins as midtempo ballad and accelerates with the supercharged propulsion of a runaway train. --Don McLeese

Album Description
You don't hear authentic rock'n'roll much anymore. The Springsteen, Tom Petty, Jerry Lee Lewis kind. The ice cold beer and red hot guitar kind. The kind with unfettered emotional urgency. Bursting from the seams. Scott Miller & the Commonwealth do just that on Citation. Citation is no fear. Flat out. No tiptoeing around subject or language or anything. Feet firmly planted on the ground. Rock'n'roll. The kind you don't hear too much anymore.

Scott Miller & the Commonwealth went to Memphis, Tennessee, and cut this record in 14 days. Produced by the legendary Jim Dickinson (Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Replacements, Big Star).

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Customer Reviews

Worth Enjoying -- succeeds on all levels
When something resonates on a simple, level, but shows depth with time, it is a treat. Scott Miller has grown. This is great music -- so basic, simple and accessible at first glance, but with complex flavors that continue to reveal themselves with time. It can keep pleasing you in different ways and refreshing itself. Miller is so seamless in his mixing of styles that you might miss the richness. His gifts with language are well honed, and the things he chooses to share with us are worth engaging. Beyond that, the pacing and spacing of the songs and flavors is just plain tasty. This stuff is sooooo deeply good - and Miller makes it look so easy that you might miss it if you don't take the time to notice what's going on. There's an artist at Work -- don't miss out.

This one looks you in the eye
Scott Miller writes and plays like a seasoned veteran in what is an extremely complex presentation of heart, soul, and sweat. Smokin' hot. I see dead people when I hear `The Only Road...' homage to the Minor Chord so full of angst, despair, longing and a generations' lost innocence that I find myself practically in mourning after each spin. That one's a single with attitude. My bourgeois favorite has to be 'Eight Miles a Gallon' and its no-nonsense rock and roll, but I found a much deeper appreciation of `Still People Are Moving,' the tribute to American hero Sam Houston (`Say Ho'), 'Wild Things,' 'On a Roll,' and 'Long Goodnight.' Stunning and powerful.

5 Stars Is The Easy Part
I love the attitude of this record. There were signs of it in Thus Always To Tyrants and Upside Downside, but Citation drives it home. From the opening notes of "Freedom Was A Stranger", this CD pulls you in. Scott uses dynamics in this record to help drive home all the important points. In a day and age when artists are out there protesting everything from the President to Colonel Sanders, it was refreshing to hear a real protest. A protest of the people who have fed you full of s**t all your life, from your best friend who steals your girl while you are deployed overseas (listen to "Jody") to the halls of congress who slings enough bulls**t to power a big engine designed to run on it (listen to "8 Miles A Gallon"). Perhaps the best protest is the album itself which seems to protest getting older. 5 Stars was the easy part for me. Taking the CD out of my player has proven to be the hard part.