Acclaimed songwriter and guitarist Molly Miller has recently released her Americana blues single "Blues to Greens," the second song off of her Molly Miller Trio band's forthcoming record called "The Ballad of Hotspur," which will come out on Mar 3.
'The Ballad of Hotspur' Molly Miller's Introspective 'Pandemic' Album
The single is an ethereal-sounding and bluesy tune that spawned out of the introspection that the pandemic brought as it initially wafted across the world in 2020 and affecting the livelihood of a cavalcade of people, especially musicians.
This theme is the core of the trio's forthcoming third album and is infused with surf-rock influences, a genre that reigned supreme at the time, that comprises Americana jazz songs.
As for the record's name, it references Shakespeare's "Henry IV Part 1" play, which itself is based on a historical 14th-century English knight named Sir Henry Percy who was famous for fighting numerous skirmishes against the French during the Hundred Years War.
Sir Percy's alacrity and swiftness in battle, alongside his readiness to spring an attack against his enemies, are the background behind the "Hotspur" appellation.
Molly used the collective downtime that the pandemic enforced on everybody to focus on writing new music. Miller's core collaborator during the whole ordeal was her bandmate, Jennifer, who bounced back any ideas Miller shot her way.
After two years of "remotely" collaborating, Miller, Jennifer, and her other bandmates finally got to convene in person for the first time. Afterward, the overall writing and composing process took another two years, and finally, they were able to record the entire album at LA's Valentine Studios.
In contrast to the conceptualizing phase, the actual recording only took two days, and from it "Blues to Greens" was realized.
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Miller's recently released single was one of the earlier songs that were written in the album, conceptualized just a week into the global pandemic back in March 2020.
At that time, the instrumentalist had an epiphany about the situation and saw the lighter shades amid the darkness that surrounded her home in LA, which is perhaps most evident in the lushness that it exhibited in light of reduced human activity.
This juxtaposition was striking enough to move Miller into writing the first legs of what would become her "Blues to Greens" single, finishing the first whole draft of the piece in just one sitting.
This kind of resonance with music is second nature to Miller, as she essentially grew up with a guitar, strumming its strings since she was seven years old.
In the earlier parts of her life as a musician, the guitarist played alongside her four siblings, covering music by legendary artists like Jimi Hendrix, Mickey Baker, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Continuing through high school, her "obsession" with music only grew stronger as she got acquainted with the genre of jazz, and even carried Miller across her university years at USC, eventually earning her a BA, an MA, and a doctorate in the musical arts.
After only weeks of graduating, Jason Mraz personally contacted Miller in 2016 to ask her to play with him. Equally as amazing is her being the chair of the guitar department at the LA College of Music in the same year.
Since then, her career has only gone in an upward trajectory, becoming a studio guitar professor at USC in 2022 and having the chance to play with the likes of Black Eyed Peas, Scary Pockets, Sin Bandera, and even Pomplamoose.
As for upcoming performances, the Molly Miller Trio will be playing new music from the forthcoming album this Spring. The album premiere, on the other hand, will be inaugurated at Motivo, LA on May 11.
