Daisycutter: Sara Milonovich

Sara Milonovich
Daisycutter

It’s an interesting journey Sara Milonovich takes listeners on through the course of Daisycutter, beginning with a look at the sometimes harsh realties of Country Life all the way to a finishing set of lively tunes from the Adirondacks, Louisiana, and Italy. Milonovich is a top notch fiddle player. You may have heard her on Pete Seeger’s Grammy winning At 89 album, and on the road backing Richard Shindell and Cathie Ryan, or perhaps in her duo appearances with guitarist Greg Anderson.

She is also a very fine singer -- think power matched with conversational tone, a bit like country singer Suzy Bogguss -- and both fiddle and voice come to the fore on this varied set of tunes and songs. There are timely as well as timeless touches of political commentary in Insanity Street and Under the Weather, and a timeless take on Eliza Gilkyson’s bittersweet love song Last Dance. Northern Cross is a darker ballad, while Pleasant Valley Sunday lets the sun shine in with its bouncy Carole King by way of The Monkees look at suburban life. The tunes are equally well done, drawing for the most part on Milonovich’s time in Celtic music and her background growing up in New York state. There’s a tune for her road weary car, called Fiona’s Breakdown, and a set called No Sweat Helene, which pairs two Quebecois tunes with a original written for guitarist John Doyle, who joins in for that tune and several other cuts as well. Anderson plays all sorts of stringed instruments across many of the cuts, too, and John Kirk, Natalie Haas, Lloyd Maines and Eliza Gilkyson are among those who also sit in now and again. That’s a powerful support group, and Milonovich shows she’s well up to it

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