It's Miller Time The Steve Miller Band plays the hits and a little blues
by Susan Whitall
There was a time in the '60s when hippies became obsessed with the blues. Musicians like Michael Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Elvin Bishop -- and Steve Miller -- drew deeply from the well of Chicago blues, playing a psychedelicized form of the music that ironically ended up edging out the old-time blues artists in popularity.
In the 1970s, Miller segued into playing music with some of the spikier edges of his earlier blues infatuation smoothed down into a blues-infused pop music that was insanely well-suited to FM radio.
Consider "Fly Like an Eagle," "Rock'n Me," "Jet Airliner," "The Joker," "Swingtown"... a list that goes on and on.
While he'll be playing those songs in an upcoming concert, Miller will also revert to his first love and play a truckload of blues and rhythm and blues -- if the audience is receptive.
"We just did a big swing of the South where they really love the blues, so we've been knocking them out," Miller says. "It's been a really good addition. It's added a whole 'nother facet to our touring and we're really loving it."
The reason for Miller's happy regression is a project he's been working on off and on, while he also worked on his first DVD, "Steve Miller Band Live From Chicago," released earlier this year.
He recorded 41 blues and R&B songs at the Skywalker Ranch old-school style, on analog tape. The set will probably be offered for sale via his Web site, stevemillerband.com, rather than by traditional record company distribution.
"Skywalker Ranch is one of the last still-standing studio rooms big enough to hold 120 people, full orchestra and chorus," Miller says. "We got Andy Johns, who was the engineer for the Rolling Stones and all the Led Zeppelin hits, the master of the big drum sound, the big bass sound, a guitar players' dream. We went in and played for 11 days and just had a ball."
The guitarist reveled in researching thousands of blues and R&B songs in preparation.
"I have about 49,000 songs on a terabyte up in my studio. I've been hiring little 13-year-old kids to load CDs onto my computer now for about three years. So I hit 'blues' and bang, 5,000 songs come up! I spent a couple of days speeding through that, and I got it down to 580 songs, then down to 170 songs, then down to 70 songs, then we recorded 41 of them."
The 41 include such gems as "You Pretty Thing" by Bo Diddley, "No More Doggin"' by Roscoe Gordon, "Drivin' Wheel" by Junior Parker, "Who's Been Talkin"' by Howlin' Wolf and several by Detroit's own John Lee Hooker.
Adding to the musical mix, Miller has Sonny Charles from the Checkmates singing with him.
"It's like having Otis Redding join the group," Miller enthuses. "Sonny is just a phenomenal singer. Plus he's singing all the greatest hits with us, too, so with six of us doing vocals, this is the summer of the voice. We just finished doing nine shows, the first leg, and it just sounds phenomenal."
