Bosque Brown

Named after a river that runs through Stephenville, TX, Bosque Brown is a lightly Christian-flavored alt-country band, but is really, when all is said and done, singer and songwriter Mara Lee Miller, whose haunting, dark, and oddly hopeful and spiritual narratives are somewhat reminiscent of Gillian Welch. Growing up in Stephenville, Miller's Baptist background exposed her to countless hymns and her mother, a piano teacher, made sure her daughters knew how to play those hymns on piano. Miller, meanwhile, was drawn to the country songs she would occasionally hear on the radio. She moved to Denton, TX when she was 18 years old to attend college and quickly became part of the local music scene while discovering artists like Townes Van Zandt, Hank Williams, and Gillian Welch, all of whom would prove formative in her own writing and singing style. A musician friend, Ryan Miller, offered to record her songs on a four-track recorder, and in the process, the pair fell in love and were married. Miller would hand out the completed demo, usually with her own homemade artwork, to friends and family. Damien Jurado toured through Denton in 2002 and was given a copy of the demo recordings. Impressed by what he heard, Jurado had Miller record with his producer Eric Fisher in Seattle, and the resulting album, Bosque Brown Plays Mara Lee Miller, was released by Burnt Toast Vinyl in 2005. A four-song EP, Cerro Verde, followed on the imprint in 2006. A full-length set, Baby, appeared in 2009.