Album Review: Milly Tabak and The Miltones, Honest Woman (Milly Tabak Records)

The second album from Milly Tabak and the Miltones is Heartland Americana, where Milly stands out with a magnificent voice and the band comes on like the modern Muscle Shoals house band.

I saw the band opening for Tami Neilson’s 2018 Auckland Town Hall, and they warmed up a pretty excited audience with a super Country-Rock set, Milly especially whipping up some energy. Since then I have seen her performing solo, occasionally combining with other outstanding female New Zealand artists like Reb Fountain and Jamie McGill.

Folk Americana, emotional and a crystal-clear Country inflected voice.

Honest Woman is filled with finely crafted songs of personal growth, scathing wit and some raw confrontational confession.

Cognac opens and immediately you hear a bright and warm sound. Recording at Roundhead studios in Auckland, the group had the use of vintage equipment to achieve this. They played pretty much as a live-in-the-studio recording. Mastering in Nashville by Paul Blackmore brings all this out in fine balance.

Milly has a great Country voice which is pitched somewhere between Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Sensual and playfully sexy on this one. I wanna love you but that’s so insane/ If I can be the only thing on your mind.

Innocence is raw, confrontational and cathartic. Milly starts with a sweet voice, breaking just like a little girl. A nice swamp delta slide guitar threads its way through the song. The singing gets angrier, and tries to reclaim what was lost.

Don’t try and put it away/ I didn’t like it/ You took my innocence away.

Hey Sister is Country Gospel and is highlight. Slow reverential start with a ringing acoustic guitar. As the church chorus joins in, Milly transports us with a beautiful floating and rising voice in full Emmylou mode.  Hey Sister/ Love/ Only love is the mantra which takes the song out in the extended vamp.

Running Your Mouth is scathing, sarcastic and very funny. I don’t like your type/ I don’t need your advice/ You’re a man whose got no class. A sweet voice with muscle. A Country Jazz piano like Charlie Rich at the back of the song and the band stretch out and simmer and cook.

Liven Up the Night swings with a disco rhythm lead by the drummer. Another showcase for the band. They play without flash but with taste and restraint, some Rock guitar flourishes adding heft. Milly has fun, from sweet little girl, to seductive, to straight out belting Rock.

Some have compared her to Janis Joplin. She has that ability to be playful and stretch out, adding some soul and sexiness.

Roam starts with Hendrix’s Little Wing guitar intro. It even has the drums coming in at the exact same time. And then the tempo picks up. This is a Country Rock highlight. The voice gets more urgent, sensual and unshackled. The band stretch out. A great sax break is added. This sounds like the great Van Morrison’s Caldonia Soul Band of the Seventies.

Why Don’t You Love It continues the theme. Horns, a Gospel chorus, the singer riding up into the high notes with complete ease and back down again.

Woman You Need is close to a straight Blues in the intro. Swamp Delta guitar, then a Funk rhythm picks up the pace and we head straight in Seventies Rock-infused Soul. Milly sounding like Linda Womack.

The title track, Honest Woman, ends the album and is another highlight. Sweet Country-Rock guitar opening riff. Keyboards sounding like a pedal steel. The song swings with Southern blue-eyed Soul as the band go into full Muscle Shoals mode and Milly stretches out and slays us again.

The group deservedly received acclaim with their debut album of three years ago. Honest Woman and is a stunning little gem of Americana.

Rev Orange Peel.