April 9, 2010 Stephanie Nilles & Michael Miller

Stephanie Nilles performed at Deepwells for the second time. She was mesmerizing, fascinating, energetic and entertaining. She has such eccentric qualities and such enormous talent that it is a shame if no one comes along to bridle her and hone that talent into something equally distinctive but controlled. As it stands, I missed ninety percent of her lyrics which is a sad, considering that they were clearly original, often political, and sometimes funny. To say that not one song was memorable, but instead to say that the performance was memorable means to my mind that she missed the mark and hopefully one day will hit the bull’s eye.

Michael Miller was a sad disappointment in every respect. Every song deteriorated into a series of endless repetitions that turned into water torture. His guitar playing was so basic and elementary that initially I thought he was tuning his guitar, not playing the lead intro to a song that allegedly made its way into a failed movie. No surprise there. It seemed as if he had mastered all of the Beatles cord changes without their genius or originality. If this were a Smithtown Elementary School recital, he would have stood out as a star, but at Deepwells he disappeared into a black hole. No wonder he had to give his “million cellar” CDs away.