How many times so many of us have gone through life without being able to express our true feelings or talking about painful triggers that brought us down in a dark place of our minds and souls for years? Our guess is "millions of us", but we were always too afraid to admit it and face our internal demons, so we just kept on hiding, by saying to people "Nah, I'm fine".
Thankfully though, there are still out there those that are able to say to themselves "enough" to those torturing feeling and find the platform to outpour their negative karma, often through an artistic vehicle, like music.
It might have taken, for the acclaimed American singer/songwriter, pianist and poet Scottie Miller, quite some time to be able to find the strength to express the aforementioned feelings, feelings that have accompanied this enormously talented artist for almost two decades, not without some heavy personal and emotional scars.
After his last triumphant 2022 album called Carnival Cocoon, a record that included a poetry book and procured to the American artist a Bluebird Reviews Award as Artist Of the Year together with many more accolades from the Music press worldwide, Miller must have decided, at some point, to finally lift away from his life the weight of a painful separation from his ex-wife, back in 2008, something that brought into the talented pianist and singer/songwriter's life a struggling period of depression and dependency from alcohol, the latter, something that Miller has proudly declared to have completely eliminated from his life in the last 18 years of his life.
Miller clearly wanted, in the early stage of making a new album that would touch upon his personal life in depth, a sonic support that would emphasise even more Scottie Miller's personal journey, adding to the narrative aspect of his songwriting a musical context that would enrich even more the depth of the record's biopic concept.
A few people close to Miller played an important role in planting the seeds that generated what then became a new record called Hello Pain; from Miller's spiritual advisor and mentor Bill Hawks, who sparked the title of the new album in Miller's mind during a conversation concerning an accident that happened to Miller himself a while ago, to another very talented American Blues and Folk singer/songwriter and longtime friend of Miller, Ruthie Foster, who made possible that Scottie Miller could contact the Budapest Scoring Orchestra, an impressive collective made of 52 elements that will play a vital part in the orchestral arrangement of the 10 songs comprised into Hello Pain.
Naturally, a winning team should never change and neither did Scottie Miller, whilst working in the making of Hello Pain. The singer/songwriter decided to involve once again one of his closest collaborators, orchestrator Cierra Alise Hill, who worked side by side with Scottie Miller on his masterpiece album Carnival Cocoon, to help the American artist to piece together the orchestra parts scored by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra, creating a highly effective cinematic feeling running throughout the whole record.
Hello Pain is, frankly, one of the most complete and technically well played, sang, written and recorded albums that our website has come across so far into an already rich musical year like 2026 is proving to be.
That Scottie Miller was a phenomenal lyricist, it was no secret to anybody, but in Hello Pain, the level of excellence in the songwriting, coupled with the emotional honesty exuding from Miller's powerful singing and delivery style, it is simply outstanding in every moment of this highly inspired and inspirational record.
Miller's idea was to divide the album into two sections, where in the first half of the album one could really feel the heartbreaking struggle the Minneapolis-based singer/songwriter was going through, leaving then to the second part of Hello Pain a sense of gradual, spiritual rebirth and a feeling of hope, still phrased and delivered with remarkable passion and sincerity by Miller himself.
The work made by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra works in perfect conjunction with Scottie Miller's incredible piano playing abilities. Each song's arrangement provides the perfect colour palette for Miller's vocal delivery, contributing beautifully to sonically complete every lyrical passage of that breathtaking journey in music that is Hello Pain.
If you love music, you cannot miss this album for the world; Miller's new body of work is a window to the artist's soul that will touch the chords of your heart so much from the moment that the needle will touch the vinyl on your Hi-Fi, until you will find yourself completely absorbed in its emotionally charged lyrical and musical narrative.
Scottie Miller's new record is the highest peak of his career to date, a collection of extraordinary songs that frames perfectly the talent and the personality of Scottie Miller as an artist, as it does by displaying the vulnerability and the honesty of Miller as a human being at the same time.
Moreover, Hello Pain is, in our personal opinion, an ultimate statement of musical artistry at 360 degrees and one of the best records of any genre of the last 20 years of the Great American Songbook.
Hello Pain is out now and it can be purchased directly via Scottie Miller's Official Website
