Happy New Year
01/18/07
Happy New Year!
Its been a rough new year so far, I gotta tell ya. I mean, this new
year is still a baby and its kicking my
ass! ( no wonder I hate babies...).
But today I got it beat. So before it got any worse, I got up early
and went to the dentist. (TOP THAT, AUGHT SEVEN!!!)
It reminded me of a story my grandfather used to tell: Seems this
farmer wore boots a size too small while he worked,
and complained about it all day to all his friends. Why? Because when
he got back to the house at the end of the day
nothing felt better than taking those goddamn boots off....
Anyway, I promise to keep my shoes on, but I'm going back on the road
solo. It'll take a few shows to get back in
my groove after being off for a bit, but that's like any job or
anything else you do, even for fun. I mean hell, you're not
gonna be the best "Pong" player if you don't turn on the K-Mart
Unisonic Tournament 2000 and keep your chops up, right?
Besides, we got a live record to release in April and I need to get
moving on the new studio record due out in early '08.
So lets get to work.
Spread the word.
Scott Miller
BACK AT THE BCTV
01/25/07
So I didn't know the "melting pot" here in Athens, GA was located in the hotel where me and the boys
stayed for our Blue Collar TV gigs. Its kind of creepy; I haven't really processed how I feel/felt about
that job and have enough going on now I don't know that I need to waste the mental time/power to do
so. I know I met some cool people. I know I met some UNcool people. How 'bout we leave it at that? I
sure hope the COOL people I met show up tonight...
I KNOW I remember the bar here. (Oh the revelry!)
Big Al seems to be in good spirits, and excited about being in Athens. It is a nice town, I must admit. I
do have to say, though, to the Georia Bulldog fans out there:
You call your band "The Redcoats".
Your school fight song is " The Battle Hymn of the Republic"
What kind of SOUTHERN school is that?
Okay, enough smart ass stuff, I'm by myself out here. Hope you folks spread the word
on these solo shows!!
Check the website: http://thescottmiller.com/
Folk Rock
Miller
It's Fe-BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-uary
2/10/07
********It's Fe- BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR_uary**********************
Wear your long handles and come out ( or send your friends!) as I see enough cities on here that I get complaints about: "how come you never come to _____________"
So show up or shut up. Pretty please.
Texas and then the West Coast are next, so stay tuned......
Hope all is well with everyone.
Scott Miller
TEXAS TOUR
2/26/07
Texas, if we keep doing this, people are gonna start talking....
With a guerrilla strike added into Oklahoma City, its that time of year
for another Texas run!!
This one is solo ( with my trusty side-kick, Big Al) and will be a
pleasure after the 8-show-in-a-row-one-step-ahead-of-ice-storm-boogie of the past few
weeks. So bring on the twisters, the rattlers, the Sam Houston historians and the
nay-sayers, because here we go...
SOLO ACOUSTIC TOUR
Mon Feb 26, 2007
Chelsea's Cafe (solo)
Baton Rouge, LA
225-387-3679
Tues Feb 27 , 2007
McGonigel's Mucky Duck (solo)
Houston, TX
713-528-5999
Weds Feb 28, 2007
Dan's Silverleaf (solo)
Denton, TX
940-320-2000
Thurs March 1, 2007
The Blue Note (solo)
OKC. OK
405-524-5678
Fri March 2, 2007
Floore's Country Store (solo)
Helotes, TX
210-695-8827
Sat March 3, 2007
Jack's Off the Wall (solo)
Ft Worth, TX
817-850-9955
Hope to see some folks come out and buy some merchandise. Remember,
kids, we're giving away a FREE LIVE PONY with every CD or t-shirt your folk's purchase!!!
take care,
Scott Miller
NOSTRADAMUS IN KNOXVILLE
02/26/08
And the new guitar
Shall be played by the stubborn one
And his army shall be victorious
In the new city of the Pyramid.
Well, I got through the two shows this weekend at the beautiful Laurel Theatre here in Knoxville. The Laurel is an old Presbyterian church renovated years ago into a performance venue that sounds incredible AND has a “BYOB” policy. Both Friday and Saturday’s shows set new records in the amounts “recycled” I was told. Drinking beer in church is an essay and an idea that needs to be explored: “Pop a top, Martin Luther.”
I tried out some new songs with a new guitar, and I think things are progressing nicely. There is still some “tweaking” to be done but the 4 or 5 new songs seem to be a good base, and hopefully in the coming weeks I can do just that: edit those and write more. I’m in a good groove.
Saturday night turned tricky when ESPN moved the Tennessee/Memphis (#1 vs. #2) basketball game to a 9PM tip-off. I know it really doesn’t matter in February (March matters) but it was a big game for the state of Tennessee in general (yes, Memphis, you are part of Tennessee—but if Georgia gets its way trying to move the border to steal our water you would be part of Mississippi—so be careful what you wish for!) Anyway, we came up with a way to keep the fans up to date, have a good show AND assure victory.
The show was over and the theatre was empty except for the staff recycling. Big Al and I were on our knees in front of the old altar with the radio on and three minutes left in the game. I knew deep down we would win, not because we were praying in a church, but because I had my lucky “Power T” socks on. Congratulations, boys. You’re now number one. No need to thank me…
At the bar afterwards, celebrating the victory, I talked with some fans. One guy mentioned, “You better check your new instrumental against Al Stewart’s song “Nostradamus”. Well, first off, anyone who knows Al Stewart songs, and especially one off of his “Past Present Future” album must be heeded. So this morning, as I typed this I plopped a NEEDLE on the album and find…..
Though the songs were both in D tune
They differ as Knoxville to Memphis
The Mule tops the Tiger
And that’s how the ball bounces….
Winter will spring before too long.
Hope you are all well.
Scott
WEST COAST TOUR
3/11/07
As many of you know, I was raised on a farm in the Shenandoah Valley.
That is sort of near the Virginia/West Virginia border in case you aren't familiar. Virginia is on the East Coast of the United States, if you can't picture it, and sits on top of the 38th parallel. The United States is in the Western Hemisphere and it's shaped like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
some kid pulled the crust off of before devouring. Virginia is on the right side of the sandwich. Got the picture?
I say all this because whenever I tour the west/left side of the sandwich I realize that no one gives an over worked claim on what is on the other side of the Mississippi. And PLEASE, I'm not trying to start a war between the east and west "Americana" crowd---that could get out of hand--the music critics could call it " The Rumble in 'G' "...... Anyway, I digress, but this, after all, a BLOG. Where was I?
Oh yeah, I wanted to tell a story about the first time I went to Northern California: I got out of the car after driving through some beautiful country and the richest, blackest earth I'd ever seen---what COULDN'T you grow in that soil?---and took a deep breath and remarked, "Damn, it smells like garlic bread out here!!" Only to turn around and see an Italian restaurant up wind and across the road.
My point is this, unfortunately, we're all pretty much the same anymore, so I hope that some folks will come out and enjoy the show. Maybe they can look at me as a museum piece or some other "believe it or not" oddity....
I'll try and post more later if I survive the air plane ride...
Miller
SACRAMENTO
3/21/07
Okay, Sacramento, what gives?
( Or the "sac" as you call it-----you know the town, its off "the five"...)
I'm in the music business, right? And in the 'show business' ( it ain't called "show FRIENDS") there are all sorts of vices and traps. Hell, I'm probably addicted to things I don'teven know I'm addicted to by now, although I have seen no credible proof that Vienna sausages are truly addictive...
But I am in need a simple Coca Cola. A true corn sugar-(now)-caffeine-filled out of Atlanta-Coca Cola. I walked MANY blocks yesterday in just such a search, and I myself grew up in Pepsi country ( I drank the R.C. because I was a rebel) but there was none to be found. So I guess we'll drive to Fresno and see what they got....
Hey, I think its going great out here on the road. Folks have been coming out and I think the show is good.
Spread the word and send your friends, Miller is coming to town...
Take care,
scott
http://thescottmiller.com/
RECONSTRUCTION ALBUM OUT
4/9/07
Yes, I called it an album. I sure wish it was a double album on vinyl, but I was born just a little too late to have my music pressed like that. I think its a pretty good representation of what we do/did on three cold nights in December of '06. Of course, the band is changing, as is its nature; Devin (Malone) has left to climb higher and tour better, and we wish him Godspeed, and an open invitation to come play any time, as we do to all "Commonwealthers". But our heart (back beat) goes on with Shawn and Jeremy.
It may be time to unleash our "jazz odyssey"....
In the meantime, I have some solo dates with Patti Griffin. Some of you may know I helped her get her start in the music business by letting her sing on a couple of songs on the "Upside/Downside" ALBUM. (THAT WAS SARCASM, MADAAM!)
And as many of you know, I paid her by getting in a rear end collision driving her back to the hotel after the recording session. Well, my insurance company's loss is Americana's gain. She's been a star ever since.You don't have to thank me. Seriously, she is as talented as she is sweet and has been kind to me as long as I've known her, so I appreciate the opportunity. I'll try not to let her down.
So do me a favor and pick up the live record "Reconstruction". I think you'll like it.
Take care and I shall blog again...
Scott
MY VERSION OF THE TEXAS TWO STEP
5/30/07
This is how it goes:
1) I come down with the band to tour your great republic.
2) I drink a few shots of bourbon and start educating the "listening" audience on how Sam Houston was a Virginian first THEN an East Tennessean, and how Texas really owes
Virginia ( MY commonwealth) and Tennessee (MY state) some respect and how I intend to get it before leaving the stage....
3) Some big guy in a cowboy hat says, "HOLD ON THERE, LITTLE FELLA!!!!"
4) I pack my stuff and run, hopefully grabbing a boot load of merch money on my
way to the bus.
5) Next town is....
(If possible with this word processing program, I would draw foot prints...)
Texas, you have been very good to me, and in the hopes of making it all BETTER, we're doing some opening slots this time to reach more of you, so bring a friend, buy some t-shirts, and we'll be out of your hair after these dates.
Miller
***********************AND FINALLY: THE-- FAMILY-- VAN--
TRAPPED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*************************
10/07/07
Okay, Texas. For good or bad, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health; and even if the University in Austin is stealing the "Power 'T' " from the Volunteers who created them...I now pronounce you served.
I had written by pony express earlier in the year, stating that if that Texas "T" got any closer to the Big Orange "T" I was gonna saddle up my wife's 20 year old horse, get my great-great-grandaddy's Tex/Mex War sword and raise an army on my way down to Austin to take it back!!! Well, the wife won't let me take the horse, the sword is at my folk's house back in Virginia, and the only troops I could muster are 5 tired boys on board an old shuttle bus with no air-conditioning. Plus, we're bypassing Austin and headed for Gruene, TX anyway.
BUT WE ARE coming down to wrap up 2007 and sure hope to see some of you out.
We will raise hearty glasses to Sam Houston, College Football, and Rock n' Roll ( and not necessarily in that order..)
THURS. OCT. 11 ~ Mucky Duck ~ Houston, TX
FRI. OCT. 12 ~ Granada Theatre ~ Dallas, TX
SAT. OCT. 13 ~ Gruene Hall ~ Gruene, TX
Be well. Be safe. And be good at it if you ain't.
Scott Miller
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