Stream: Blake Mills, ‘If I’m Unworthy’

Kevin Bronson on July 23rd, 2014

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Just when you think you’re heard every dialect of the language of guitar, along comes a guy like Blake Mills to make the instrument speak in tongues. We say “a guy like” in jest, of course; Blake has few peers in the rock world these days. None other than Eric Clapton recently said of the 27-year-old, “Blake Mills is the last guitarist I heard that I thought was phenomenal.” Mills, who has played with the likes of Beck, Cass McCombs, Jackson Browne, Lucinda Williams and Neil Diamond and has lent his skills as a producer/player to artists such as Conor Oberst, Sara Watkins, Sky Ferreira and Fiona Apple (he’s also producing the next Alabama Shakes album), will release his second solo album this fall “Heigh Ho,” the follow-up to 2010’s “Break Mirrors,” will be out Sept. 16 via Verve/Record Collection. The song “If I’m Unworthy” is built on sparse, slightly throttled and reverberated riffs, which along with Mills’ pining voice set the stage for a dirty solo in the middle. “Heigh Ho” features two duets with Apple (on the songs “Don’t Tell Our Friends About Me” and “Seven”), along with contributions from all-stars such as Don Was, Jon Brion, Jim Keltner, Benmont Tench and Rob Moose. Name-checking aside, this figures to be a long-player.

||| Stream: “If I’m Unworthy” and “Don’t Tell Our Friends About Me”