USA Today

By Brian Mansfield

Three and a half out of four stars

Plumb the depths of country music's brokenhearted soul and you'll find Buddy Miller, a Nashville singer and guitarist whose style draws heavily from gutbucket blues and backwater country. In this album's title track, the singer is so despondent that he begs the moon to go dark rather than illuminate the wreck of his life. The opening cut, Does My Ring Burn Your Finger, contains what may be the year's most ghostly couplet: "When I gave you my heart, it was not what you wanted/Now the walls say your name and the pictures are haunted." Cruel Moon mixes in Pop Staples and Gene Pitney covers with its originals, and Miller enlists the assistance of Steve Earle, Jim Lauderdale and Emmylou Harris. Miller's previous albums supplied tunes for the likes of Brooks & Dunn and the Dixie Chicks. Cruel Moon is sure to do the same, especially with songs as emotionally devastating as Sometimes I Cry, which mourns a friend's death.

top