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Buddy Miller has long been a man of faith, but he hasn't often sung about it, just hinting at it here and there on his critically acclaimed alt-country/roots rock albums. But the current state of the world—the threat of terrorism, a nation at war—combined with the untimely death of his brother-in-law got Miller thinking that now would be the right time to put his faith on a record, clearly and plainly. The result is Universal United House of Prayer (New West Records), which we think is one of the year's best CDs. There's one "war protest" song on the CD—Bob Dylan's epic "With God on Our Side"—but primarily, it's just an expression of Miller's faith, a faith he has shared with his wife Julie, another fine musician, since her conversion almost 20 years ago. Miller, 51, has long been hailed as one of the world's better guitar players; indeed, Emmylou Harris noticed that a decade ago and invited him to join her band, Spyboy. Miller has stuck Spyboy while making solo albums—including a couple with Julie—all along. We recently caught up with Miller, one of the most soft-spoken, humble guys we've met, to talk about the new album and a few other things.

So, I hear your guitar is pretty old.

Buddy Miller Yeah, I bought it at a pawnshop for fifty bucks in the mid-'70s, but I think it's from the mid-'60s. It's a good fifty-dollar guitar.

You're one of the best guitarists in the world. You really bought it at a pawnshop?

Miller Yes. I was playing in a band with Julie, and we were playing in Boulder, Colorado. I was walking by a pawnshop and there it was. It looked kind of ugly-pretty. It had sparkles on it, sort of gaudy looking. But I bought it because I thought it kind of looked good. Took it to the gig and it sounded good. I went back to the pawn shop, and they had three more they sold me for fifty bucks each.

So how are they holding together after all these years?

Miller Super Glue. And there's tape on them, too, come to think of it.

Let's talk about your new album. The title is the name of a real church in Nashville, pictured on the cover of the CD.

Miller Yeah. Looking at the front of the building, on one side there's a muffler shop, and on the other there's a candy company. But now that old church is boarded up. It's gone now. We took that picture a year-and-a-half ago, and when we went back there to get permission to use the picture, they weren't there anymore. Which is a shame. But I liked the title of it, and I wanted to make that the title of the record.

How would you categorize it? Country? Folk? Gospel? What?

Miller This one doesn't seem all that country. But I don't know. I don't want to call it just a gospel record because there's a few themes running parallel in there. You could call it gospel or spiritual. I don't know. It's whatever you think it is. I figured I'd find out what it is after it came out.

What are those parallel themes?

Miller The war going on, the state of the world, things that have been kind of weighing on a lot of people—and I'm just one of them. That's why it starts out with a Mark Heard song ["Worry Too Much"]. I was lucky enough to know him [Heard died in 1992] and I engineered on his record, Second Hand (1991), which that song was on. I remember coming over the first day; and the first Gulf War had just started—that's when he had written that song. So I wanted to do a Mark Heard song for this record, and that one just popped out at me, that and the Dylan song ["With God on Our Side"].

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