Music

Audible Sigh   Year: 2000 | Run Time: 49:08

©2000 True Tunes Records/Rhythm House Records. Produced by Buddy Miller, Bill Mallonee. All songs written by Bill Mallonee for CyBrenJoJosh (BMI) ©2000.

Track List

    1. Now as the Train Pulls Away [3:11]
    2. Goes Without Saying [3:19] YouTube
    3. She Walks on Roses [3:04]
    4. Black Cloud O'er Me [3:27]
    5. Resplendent [5:02] YouTube
    6. Starry Eyed [4:27]
    7. Extreme North of the Compass [2:43]
    8. Nothing Like a Train [5:17] YouTube
    9. But Not for Long [2:52]
    10. Any Side of Anywhere [4:40]
    11. Good Luck Charm [3:46] YouTube
    12. Could Be a Lot Worse [3:39]
    13. Solar System [3:39] YouTube

    About Audible Sigh

    Recorded in a day and a half in December of 1998 at Dogtown Studio (Buddy Miller's house) and produced by Buddy Miller, this album features a duet with Emmylou Harris, and a number of beautiful harmonies by Buddy's wife (and recording artist), Julie Miller. Recording took place right before Kevin Heuer joined the band, so Steve Earle's drummer was used for the sessions. There are four versions of Audible Sigh floating around. The first, very rare, was a limited release by Pioneer Music Group. The second was a pre-release via TrueTunes. The first official release had a number of revisions from the pre-release and features a blue duotone of Bill on the cover. The fourth release again has a slightly different song line up, and 5,000 copies contain the bonus disc entitled Room Despair, a short collection of outtakes and demos. On the slow birth of Audible Sigh, Bill has said, "It was like a small child got stuck in the birth canal... so long it asks for the car keys."

    Arguably the band's most fully realized work, Audible Sigh is a deeply satisfying exploration of the lives of touring musicians who "stumble in here under a different name almost every night," "though the furniture's rearranged," away from family long enough for the leaves to pile up around the front door, tossing wishes at the sky only to watch them hover below the ceiling, and harboring starry-eyed aspirations only to watch them fail. It's a lonely but ultimately poignant road trip, never whiny, never sentimental, never straying from the honesty of the situation. A farmer hit hard by the Oklahoma dust bowl of the 1930s asks "how much of this was meant to be" or, on the other hand, how much of this did I cause with my "failing flesh?" The affair with fans is, in its own way, a "part of the curse," not because friends will let you down, but because "friends are not the refuge"—their support feels like the phone number of the coat-check girl scrawled on "that lipstick-stained napkin." One of the conclusions drawn by the album is beautifully simple: despite everything, "it's all just gift that we're living with." Producer Buddy Miller, fresh from producing Emmylou Harris's Grammy-nominated live album, had the advantage of knowing the Vigilantes personally, and it shows. The production is clean and polished, the roots rock fits like a glove, and the sound is full but not overpowering—this band is a firecracker. Julie Miller and Harris provide background vocals, Buddy plays some mando guitar and 12-string, and Phil Madiera lays a whirring B-3 under most of the tracks. It's a seamless rock and roll album that feels like the culmination of Bill's "seven-odd years" of "mapping the caverns of our little skulls."

    Did you know?

    Yes, there is actually a fourth version of Audible Sigh that has a grayscale "school kids" cover, which few people own. It was an advance version released by Pioneer Music Group. Future versions contain a historic train wreck photo, which Everlast also used on the cover of his Today import EP. With help from Garth Brooks' former PR person and many others, Audible Sigh received significant airplay on AAA stations like XPN and was featured on the World Cafe in June of 2000 where three songs were played: "Starry Eyed," "Resplendent" and "Nothing Like a Train." Audible Sigh was going to be coming out on Q Label that Bob Harris was setting in the UK, but due to circumstances beyond his control, he had to shelve his plans. Audible Sigh won an Addy award for package design. This was for the Compass release with the train wreck cover (single disc version). The package was designed by Paul Soupiset/Toolbox Studios. Based on pre-release and first week numbers, Audible Sigh charted at number 5 on the Billboard Internet chart, between Santana and N'Sync. It also reached #35 on Gavin's AAA 2000, debuting at #48 and spending 7 weeks in the top 30.

    Quotes from Bill Mallonee

    DATE UNKNOWN: Emmylou is just amazing. She has just got the most seductive voice—and I mean that in the best way. It is just a beautiful atmospheric breathy kind of thing that is just full of yearning and intensity. We knew that if we gave her the right song it was going to work pretty well.

    Sep 25, 2000: It's been a master stroke of marketing genius. Some of you folks have probably bought [Audible Sigh] three or four times.

    Jul 6, 2001: You've seen a separation of commercial Triple-A and non-commercial Triple-A. We think, unfortunately for us, where Audible Sigh ended up falling was in the non-commercial Triple-A, which is NPR, which is forty-somethings. Which is people who don't buy a lot of records, or go to a lot of shows.

    Oct 11, 2003: No radio ever touched that one... we couldn't buy our way into the pages of No Depression for two years... why? You've heard no doubt that we we were told by No depression, the then reigning country-alt magazine and gatekeepers of all that's cool there that we were "a band that didn't count." That's hard stuff to hear in light of such a good record... anybody with an album that has involvement of Buddy Miller and Julie Miller and Emmylou Harris and such cast should at least get some notice... nope... they NEVER reviewed it.... Of course we went on 'cause we believed in what we do and what we did.

    Dec 19, 2003: I agree that Audible Sigh is heavily compressed... it's the extra-crispy side of mixing... it also had a budget that was literally 25 times that of Locket...we made the record in a month...so we had LOT's of time to micro-manage it... sometimes I think that is a mistake and can destroy the "life" inside a track.... Buddy is one of the best producers/engineers ever... and he did a great job of capturing the raw energy of the performances... and just out-right cheering us on!

    Jul 23, 2004: The fact is this: Jake and I "downsized" the whole operation... it was either that or go away... a band of four (discouraged) guys on the road was killing us... and we played some of the coolest rock and roll I've ever been involved in... Audible Sigh was great... and yes, a good band going through its paces every night whether there were 2 people there or 200, we played like there were 2,000... I will forever love that "era."

    Sep 24, 2004: Buddy's musical contributions were the 12-string riff at the top of "Your Part of the Story"... and the mando-guitar parts on "Resplendent" and "Solar System"... you must understand (and this is taking nothing away from Buddy) that I DID co-produce the record... and it was material we'd played almost every night for a year before we ever rolled tape... Buddy was great at enginnering, getting remarkable tones for us... and generally making positive environment for us to be ourselves... he's always been the big fan of "let it be live" kinda sound... it was, as many have said here, a good fit.

    Jun 24, 2005: It is a great record... and it was one of the easiest to do... because it was pre-produced same as you hear on the record for two year before we cut it... call it commitment to the art form... about 250 bar shows went into that record.

    Credits

    Bill Mallonee: lead vocals, guitars, harmonica, percussion

    Jacob Bradley: bass

    Kevin Heuer: drums

    Kenny Hutson: guitar, mandolin, pedal steel, background vocals

    Buddy Miller: mando guitar, 12 string guitar, background vocals

    Julie Miller: background vocals on "She Walks on Roses," "Starry Eyed," and "Nothing Like a Train"

    Brady Blade: drums

    Phil Madeira: hammond b-3 organ

    Emmylou Harris: background vocals on "Resplendent"

    Tammy Rogers: fiddle

    Produced by Buddy Miller and Bill Mallonee. Art Direction/Collage/Design by Paul Soupiset for Toolbox Studios. Photography by Lex Thompson. Album cover photograph by Jonathan Mark Johnson.

    Liner Notes

    Kevin Thanks: Helen Heuer, Das Heuer Familien, Pebbles, Joel & Misty McCreight, Steve McGowan, Terry Green at Eastside Guitars, Stacey at Fibes, Drue Bachmann, Evan Robinette, My Friend Stephanie, and all of my faithful students!! Kevin endorses Fibes drums

    Jake Thanks: Jamie Bradley, Larry & Lisa Bradley, Shannon Clay, the one and only Joe, Steve Dunn, Lee Moody, Kenny, and dear, sweet Valerie

    Bill Thanks: Brenda, Joshua and Joseph Mallonee (you are each precious to me) Alan Dan Orme and believers at UC, the fair town of Athens, GA. The Taco Stand, The VOL listees (too many to name, too numerous to count... God bless you each and everyone!), Barrie and Velena at The 40Watt Club, Elliott, Dave, Baron and all at True Tunes, Nick and Paste Music, Phantom Tollbooth, Red Eye Distributors, savvy indie record and bookstore owners, the Joe Kirk Family, Gracious Rob Davis, the Ken Mueller Family, "J.J." Johnson, Lott and Donna Shudde and all at Full Moon, Lee Beitchman, Holly Benyouski and Streetlevel, Trey and Jen Many, Brady Blade, Emmylou, Phil Madeira, Paul Soupiset and Toolbox, Randy Sadd, Pam Lewis, John Thompson and truetunes.com, Bob Harris, Traci Thomas and Grassroots, Lex Thompson, Tyler Bacon at Bacon Soundtrack Services, Jeffrey Kotthoff and John Brandon and Alt-Country Page.

    Very Special Thanks to the kind hearts of Buddy and Julie Miller... long may you shine... and to all the folks who have ever come to our shows, bought us a drink, filled our tank or let us sleep on their floors. You are the songs... thank ya' much...

    Love one another...

    Blessings and Pax,

    bill mallonee

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