The Millers Tale – Overland

Overland – The Millers Tale

By Chris Peken

Nostalgia Warning – the following contains medium level nostalgia.

Those trooping around Sydney venues in the late Eighties and early Nineties will recall a number of excellent pop groups fronted by wonderful female voices – The Lighthouse Keeps, Martha’s Vineyard, The Clouds to name but a few. Producer Wayne Connolly certainly would (he was in the tragically unheralded The Welcome Mat at the time). Much of the sound he and The Millers Tale have woven on Overland takes the best of those bands in terms of strong vocal melodies, but adds a sophistication of instrumentation and production that gets the very best from Rebecca Quade and her offsider John Maclean. With musical help like Jason Walker, Chris Abrahams and Jim Elliot its not hard to see why. What is not so immediately apparent is the attraction of melodies that often taken three of four listens before you suddenly realise you have been unknowingly humming them for days. Wasn’t the One for You and Union Square standout from an appealing album of country and folk tunes with a pop undercurrent that will wash you happily downstream.

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