DOCTOR KEN: SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE

Christopher Merrill, Actor & Web Designer

February 19, 2014

Ken Miller’s songs are refreshingly simple and clean, with lyrics that alternate between joy and sadness: the yearnings of a wise child, always in search of the ideal, yet knowing that this ideal can never be realized.

Unlike William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and of Experience,” where opposing parts of the soul are represented in separate poems, Miller’s innocence and experience often alternate within the same song.

His work is a mixture of country and folk, some ballads, some with driving rhythm. Some pieces are stories that range from the bittersweet (“Jesus Rides a Harley“) to the whimsical (“Deer in the Headlights“).

There’s just plain fun here (“Hoopieland“)  as well as heartbreaking romantic longings (“Before I Turn Around“).

With songs like “Carousel” we see tinges of cynicism take poetic flight:
“You can pick any number you please, and you’ll see that it’s always in the middle.”

Miller’s work spans over three decades, and he is still in the prime of his creativity. I for one look forward to what’s next.