Any Way, Shape or Form [LP]

Joplin, Missouri is a two-county town in the southwestern part of the state. Its population belongs to a metro area more than three times its size, and provides economic opportunity and sustenance for citizens of not only its home state but also neighboring Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. It links the Great Plains and the Ozark Mountains, while its cultural life is informed by the Midwest, South, and West. On Any Way, Shape or Form, Joplin's native sons the Ben Miller Band dig deeper than ever before into this cross pollination of musical styles and come out sounding like no one but themselves. Producer Vance Powell -- whose experience with roots artists includes Wanda Jackson and Buddy Guy, as well as rocker Jack White -- understands BMB's "Ozark Stomp" implicitly. The rumbling opener "The Outsider" evokes Ralph Stanley, Dock Boggs, and the Bad Livers with Miller's banjo, Doug Dicharry's drums and washboard, and Scott Leeper's washtub bass, with chanted backing vocals and a stinging l