Bill Miller’s first major-label album, The Red Road, reflected both musically and lyrically his background as a Native American who grew up on a Wisconsin reservation. The wooden flute and acoustic guitars of that project are replaced by a conventional rock & roll band on the follow-up, Raven in the Snow, which reflects another side of Miller’s childhood. Unfortunately, Miller’s heavy-handed approach to rock includes stiff, clumsy rhythms, overstated vocals, and such hackneyed lyrics as “With the wings of sorrow, I have taken flight/Cloaked in the darkness like a thief in the night.” –Geoffrey Himes