Album Review: Josh Grider – Million Miles To Go

Brody Vercher | August 14th, 2007 Email Share

Josh Grider - Million Miles To Go Nearly a week ago Josh Grider charmed the audience gathered at Hill’s Cafe for the KVET Free Texas Music Series with his awry dance style and meticulous guitarmanship, but it was his scrupulously-crafted lyrics that won me over.

Whether it was the autobiographical “Stumbling On the Edge of Greatness” or the co-penned “Rusty Cowboy” you could feel the authenticity radiating through the night (or maybe that was the Hill Country humidity). Grider’s wife stood by his side, joining in on vocals when she had a part. She shuffled to the back of the stage for a sip of water sometime during “Crazy Like You”, a song that quips that everyone is crazy, so you might as well find someone that’s crazy like you. I felt like an outsider watching two lovers share a personal moment when Grider sang “so I found me a girl and she’s five foot four / and I’ve never found a girl that I adore more” and a lusturous smile crept over his wife’s face, still standing behind him just out of his view.

Fast foward to today, the release of Million Miles To Go allows anyone to enjoy the delightfulness of those lyrics and his live shows on a studio album.

He opens with the aformentioned “Stumbling On the Edge of Greatness”, a song that can apply to anyone taking a risk by chasing their dreams. He sings “taking a chance on a maybe / might be the next Johnny-come-lately / but you can’t never tell.” These same introspective musings permeate the album on songs like “Poorer Days”, “Travis Blues”, and “Million Miles to Go”, and provide a depth to his lyrics that’s absent in many of his Texas Country contemporaries.

Aside from producing the album, Walt Wilkins appears with his band of Mystiqueros on “Crazy Like You,” the song seemingly about Grider’s wife who he lets carry the load on his co-write with Drew Kennedy, “Hand to Hold”. It’s a song about two people consumed by loneliness with the brilliant line “the morning coffee warms his throat / but it never wakes his soul” — a line that perfectly captures the emptiness felt from being alone. Loneliness rears it’s head again, and is punctuated by the fiddle, in “Rusty Cowboy”.

Grider uses the title track as a bookend for the main part of the album and to acknowledge all the great ones who have come before him. In the grand scheme of things he realizes he still has a lot to accomplish. A bonus track appears at the end where he’s once again joined by his wife for a cover of Johnny Cash’s “If I Were a Carpenter”.

During an acoustic set earlier this year Grider told the crowd that whenever his parents ask him what he’s doing with his life he responds “I’m stumbling on the edge of greatness,” and with each subsequent spin of Million Miles To Go I’m more and more inclined to believe him myself. Keep your fingers crossed for Josh Grider, he’s got the goods.

4 Stars

MySpace: Josh Grider Band (there’s currently three songs from the new album available)

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  1. [...] Who sings “Crazy Like You”? That’d be Texas singer/songwriter Josh Grider. Check out The 9513review of his album Million Miles to Go. [...]

  1. Brady Vercher
    August 14, 2007 at 7:22 pm Permalink

    If I were a dancin’ man, I think Rusty Cowboy would be the perfect description for my dancing style.

  2. Bob Marcham
    September 25, 2007 at 11:54 am Permalink

    Brady,

    I love Josh, and saw him play in Corpus Christi the other night with a guy named Owen Temple who completely showed him up. Apparently Owen has a new record coming out first week of October. Have you heard anything about this?

  3. Brody Vercher
    September 25, 2007 at 12:04 pm Permalink

    I saw Owen Temple do an acoustic show a couple of months back and bought one of his CDs at the time, but wasn’t impressed with it. I saw him again this past Friday night with a full band and wasn’t diggin’ it either. To me he was way better by himself, but even then I feel like Grider is a stronger artist.

    I’m still interested in hearing his new material, though. Lone Star Music has it available for pre-order.

  4. Bob Marcham
    September 27, 2007 at 10:39 am Permalink

    agree to disagree. keep the good stuff coming.

  5. Bob Marcham
    October 1, 2007 at 1:25 am Permalink

    Brody,

    I was visiting my sister in Lubbock and caught Owen Temple with a full band and was duly impressed. Randy Rogers hopped up on stage with him to sing a tune or two, and they seemed to be well received.

    I am curious as to what makes someone better without a full band? Obviously, I would never appreciate a Townes Van Zandt band show (if there ever was one) as much as a solo show, or Guy Clark for that matter. For the most part though, a band adds considerable musical impact that cant be topped except with an artist whos intimacy I crave. Is that how it is with you for OT?

  6. Brody Vercher
    October 1, 2007 at 8:36 am Permalink

    I’ll admit that I haven’t heard a whole lot from Owen Temple, but from what I have heard the full band sound strips the emotion out of the song for me. Like with Van Zandt and Clark, I think Temple is a better songwriter than vocalist and the grit of his songs are better presented without the added distractions. I’m also a huge fan of acoustics, so this is most likely just my biases talking.

    I do respect your opinions though, and I obviously wouldn’t have purchased that first CD if I didn’t hear something I liked as well.

  7. Jack R. Harris
    June 9, 2008 at 9:22 pm Permalink

    Josh,

    You may not remember me but I met you at Paula
    Reynolds Hilltop Concert. I’m really trying to learn how to Travis pick. I love your Travis Blues and would really like to know the tabs/chords.
    I’ll be in New York this summer around June 15th, and if you would mail them to me I would be forever grateful. My instructor, Robert Pickert in New York is going to love your Million Miles
    To Go release. My address in NY is:
    Jack Harris
    105 Holiday Harbour
    Canandaigua, NY 14424
    585-393-4453
    830-890-6025 (cell)
    P.S.
    If you had time, you could e-mail them to me at my sister-in-laws at the above e-mail in Florida, where I am right now.

    I understand if you don’t want to release this information.
    A Fan Always,
    Sincerely,

    Jack R. Harris

    Thanking you in advance!!!!!

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