Many years ago I did a short tour with Toby through some small, strange places in Spain and southern France. Of course, it was a treat to hear Toby Goodshank songs every night, but he also occasionally covered songs like "My Uncle Used to Love Me But She Died" or "Tom Green County Fair," and as a fellow Roger Miller enthusiast I’ve been wanting to collaborate on a project like this with Toby for ages. I guess it took the pandemic to give us both the time. We did this all rather casually and slowly, sending bits of songs back and forth to each other down the special information superhighway that links NYC and Prince Edward Island.

Gradually each song took shape, Toby and I inspiring each other to add or subtract parts based on what the other had done. We started by each choosing a batch of songs we wanted to tackle, but we also allowed ourselves to stray off course from time to time. Roger Miller has such an exhaustive catalog of greatness that we could record a dozen more albums like this and still be struggling to narrow down the material. Like Toby, the first Roger Miller songs I ever heard were the ones he wrote for Robin Hood; I remember the prison scene with Miller as Allan-a-Dale the rooster singing "Not in Nottingham" making an especially vivid impression on my tiny child-mind. Then it was years before I heard anything else, but as soon as I did I knew I had found a favorite songwriter.

Every Roger Miller song contains such perfectly proportioned doses of humor and sincerity, silliness and gravity. His songs are endlessly relatable and deeply strange, and he sings as though he’s always winking at you, letting you in on the joke and inviting you, daring you to join in.

-- Mathias Kom

Roger Miller's obituary in the New York Times of October 27, 1992 ran under the headline "Roger Miller, Quirky Country Singer and Songwriter, Is Dead at 56."

As condescending and limiting as that is, it does reflect how a lot of people thought of Miller -- the clown prince of country, the "down-home jester of pop" behind novelty hits like "Dang Me," "Do-Wacka-Do," "Chug-A-Lug," and "You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd."

But like other novelty stars (Tiny Tim comes to mind), he had much more than that going on. He wrote and sang the irresistible classics "King of the Road" and "England Swings," as well as a slew of melancholy ballads that country stars lined up to record, and still do -- "Lock Stock and Teardrops," "When Two Worlds Collide," "Invitation to the Blues," "Husbands and Wives," and "One Dyin' and a Buryin'," the "Don't Fear the Reaper" of country music.

They aren't as universally known as his do-wacka-do hits, but the excellence of the ballads shows that if Roger Miller was a clown he was a sad one, a pop Pagliaccio. You can hear it in his wicked gift for writing songs that manage to be jaunty and sorrowful at the same time: "In the Summertime," "Attaboy Girl," "Engine Engine No. 9," and "Walking in the Sunshine," which contains what may be the ultimate Miller line, "Put a smile upon your face as if there's nothing wrong." Then there's "Dad Blame Anything a Man Can't Quit," a jolly 1966 tune in which he describes his self-destruction, a project he unfortunately completed a quarter of a century later.

When Miller wrote about hard times and smiling through the tears he wasn't theorizing. He was born into the Depression in 1936, in Fort Worth, and was a toddler when his father died. His desperate mother farmed him out to an uncle in Oklahoma ("My Uncle Used to Love Me But She Died"), where legend has it he picked cotton to earn the $8 for his first guitar. An in-law, Sheb Wooley, bought him a fiddle. Sheb must have been an esthetic inspiration; he made his own novelty songs, recording "The Purple People Eater" and writing the "Hee-Haw" theme.

After a tour in the army during the Korean War, Miller headed to Nashville. He was not an overnight success. He played fiddle in Minnie Pearl's band, drums for Faron Young, and was a singing bellhop in a hotel. Gradually, he began to write standard, sturdy material that was recorded by George Jones, Johnny Paycheck, Jim Reeves, Ernest Tubb.

By 1960 he was recording his own work -- the deceptively upbeat "In the Summertime," the doleful "When Two Worlds Collide." It wasn't until 1964 that he began making the novelty records for which he's still best known. His sauntering vocal delivery, goony hillbilly scat and ingenious, serenely cartoonish lyrics made them giant hits around the world, earned him trunkloads of cash (which flowed right through him), and won him shelves of Grammy awards. But he'd built himself a jester's ghetto and he knew it. A lot of drinking, chain-smoking and romantic turmoil ensued. "Dang Me" was at least semi-autobiographical.

He began doing other people's songs, including Dennis Linde's charming "Tom Green County Fair." In 1968 he went so far as to record an entire album of other people's schmaltz, A Tender Look at Love, that was as far as he could run from his rodeo clown image. On it were "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Honey," "The Twelfth of Never," and Bobby Russell's "Little Green Apples," with its jangly and curiously Millerish apples/Indianapolis rhyme. He would do a couple more of these No-Miller-All-Filler LPs over the next few years.

In 1973 he wrote songs and voiced Allan-a-Dale for Disney's animated Robin Hood. That year he also released Dear Folks, Sorry I Haven't Written Lately, an album with more of his own songs. Two of them are among his gloomiest ever: "The Animal of Man" ("And his traces can be found/ In the dying streams and meadows/ And he'll kill you if he can/ He's the animal of man") and "Mama Used to Love Me But She Died," a reworking of the uncle one and another example of his genius for the upbeat-but-sad. By this point he was barely cracking a smile through the tears.

He hadn't done much noteworthy for a decade when he pulled himself together for his last triumph, writing the songs for the 1985 Broadway musical Big River, based on Huckleberry Finn. He handily showed off his range, from the gloriously gospelish "The Crossing" to the more Millerish "The Royal Nonesuch" and "Guv'mint." The show was a hit and he won a TONY for it, the first country songwriter ever to win one.

After that, a lifetime of chain-smoking and other bad habits ("Dad Blame Anything a Man Can't Quit") caught up with him. But his songs are still loved, especially by musicians, as this tribute shows. And if anything the depth and range of his talent is better appreciated now than when he was a star.

It's no surprise that the Burning Hell's Mathias Kom, who packs songs with clever and humorous imagery, would be a Roger Miller fan. Toby Goodshank says that he first encountered Miller's music as a kid watching Robin Hood, but didn't realize it until years later. The first recording by Goodshank I heard also referenced a film -- it was the ballad "The Harlot's Bed" from Robert Downey Sr.'s surreal Western Greaser's Palace. To me it was a sign of impeccable taste and cultural erudition that he should know that film and cover that song.

All Miller No Filler leaves that opinion unshaken. Kom and Goodshank have selected tunes from giant hits to the obscure. Their clever arrangements trick out and color new interpretations -- the woozy, quavering guitars of "Not in Nottingham," the funny Ms. Pac-Man electronica in "When Two Worlds Collide," the Alpine cool that rescues "Fair Swiss Maiden" from Miller's kitschier approach, the suspiciously happy-go-lucky stroll through "Walking in the Sunshine."

With this LP, Kom and Goodshank join the very long list of artists who have shown their respect for Miller by recording covers of his songs, from Dolly Parton to Ringo Starr, Guy Lombardo to the Proclaimers. It's said that there are more than 300 recorded versions of "King of the Road" alone.

With so many gems still in Miller's cupboard, maybe Kom and Goodshank will do another one of these. At least.

-- John Strausbaugh

TRACKLIST

01./A1. Oo-De-Lally
02./A2. Dang Me
03./A3. Tom Green County Fair
04./A4. Fair Swiss Maiden
05./A5. You Can’t Roller Skate In A Buffalo Herd
06./A6. When Two Worlds Collide

07./B1. King Of The Road
08./B2. Dad Blame Anything A Man Can’t Quit
09./B3. Not In Nottiongham
10./B4. My Uncle Used To Love Me But She Died
11./B5. Walking In The Sunshine

All songs written by Roger Miller except where noted

Personnel: Toby Goodshank, Mathias Kom
with TJ Huff, Leslie Graves, Kimberly Haven, Angela Carlucci, Frankie Sunswept

Arrangements: Mathias Kom, Toby Goodshank
Engineers: Frankie Sunswept, Mathias Kom
Mixing: Frankie Sunswept, Mathias Kom, Toby Goodhsank
Mastered by Frankie Sunswept for Sunswept Sounds

Art Direction & Layout: T.J. Huff, Logo by Toby Goodshank

(c) & (p) 2022, Mathias Kom/Toby Goodshank under exclusive license to BB*ISLAND
* LC 52171 * All rights reserved * Made in the EU *

LP: cat# BBI 0461, barcode: 4260064994615
CD: cat# BBI 0462, barcode: 4260064994622
digital: cat# BBI 0463, barcode: 4260064994639

Miller Time on Spotify

Roger Miller at Wikipedia,

website runned by the Roger Miller Estate: rogermiller.com/biography/