Singer/songwriter and musician Marc Miner spent many of his early years in Europe before ever setting his eyes on the American soil from where he draws his musical inspiration. When he did venture to America at last, Miner found himself in the South where accumulating the influences threaded throughout proved easy. You can hear Miner’s personal experiences and/or encounters forming the foundation of many songs, but they’re just as reliant on his imagination. Miner has the inner eye of a short story writer and brings his characters to life through significant and revealing details. Last Heroes, his new album, highlights these strengths in a more vivid way than ever before.
They certainly leap out at listeners from the start. “Sweet Revenge” doesn’t blast out of your speakers but, there’s no doubt, it takes no prisoners. Nor is it for the squeamish. This tale of firearms, betrayal, and death doesn’t have a happy ending for Miner’s characters, but many listeners will be riveted by the ride. Guitar plays a prominent role in the song, but the heart of the track is Miner’s reserved yet convincing vocal. “Nicki & Bob” is one of the best story songs featured on the album. Miner does his customary exceptional job drawing portraits in miniature of two wayward small-town outcasts suffering under the yoke of the town’s citizenry. The musical vehicle for this track may seem superficial, but a close listen reveals attention to detail that frames the words in a compelling way.
Pedal steel guitar makes one of its appearances in the arrangement of the quasi-title track “Last Hero’s Gone”. Miner makes a shrewd decision positioning the pedal steel in response to his vocal and it further embellishes another of his excellent stories in song. The fast-paced arrangement breezes past listeners but nuanced additions like the pedal steel and light organ accompaniment make this an album highlight.
The pedal steel returns for a second round during “Hero of Laredo”. It’s one of Last Heroes’ peak moments for Miner as a storyteller. He gets you completely buying into his gritty saga of a border town criminal who pays the price for getting too greedy and the suggestive Texas overtones in the music are right for the song’s setting. Acoustic guitar supplies the musical bedrock for “Heavy Bones” and dominates the song’s early minutes. It takes on a hard-hitting tenor, however, when the full band joins in and the chorus stands as an easy contender for the album’s most memorable refrain.
The banger “Bible & Rifle” is quite unlike any other song on the album. The steady march-like tempo of the track and direct physicality of the instrumentation breaks with the earlier cuts and Miner roars with his best blues rock voice rather than relying on the countryish affectations of earlier songs. Good songs follow it, but “Bible & Rifle” puts an emphatic exclamation point on a barnburner of a release. Last Heroes reflects and rages with the sort of full-blooded passion that sears itself into hearts and minds and its effect on listeners won’t soon fade.
Garth Thomas