Rounder Records is pleased to announce the signing of John R. Miller, whose first single for the label, “Lookin’ Over My Shoulder,” is released today. Miller, who initially attracted notice for his spare, elegant, vividly imagined songs as the leader of indie band The Engine Lights, is working on his full-length label debut, set for release later this year.
“Lookin’ Over My Shoulder” wryly captures the trepidation of revisiting the site of a failed romance.
“This song appears from the perspective of somebody who returns to a small hometown after some time away, attempting to avoid contact with an old flame while revisiting places they used to haunt together,” Miller explains. “Ostensibly it was through the narrator’s own actions that the relationship soured, and he remembers it bittersweetly, if regretfully. Out of sight, out of mind, but it only works for so long, as sometimes we are inevitably drawn back to places that contain painful memories for us.”
Listen to Lookin’ Over My Shoulder HERE
Intimacy and honesty are two hallmarks of the West Virginia native’s writing, which inspired the writer Silas House to observe, “Miller is somehow able to transport us to a shadowy honky-tonk and get existential all at the same time with his tightly written compositions.” Tyler Childers is a longtime friend and fan who calls Miller “a well-traveled wordsmith mapping out the world he’s seen, three chords at a time.”
More news about Miller’s forthcoming album and tour plans will be announced in the coming weeks.
