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DANGEROUS DAVE MILLER |
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STREET BEAT FEATURE
DANGEROUS DAVE MILLER
A Rocker In Blues Clothing
by Ernie Thomas
“For me, playing music goes hand in hand with breathing and eating. It’s not something I can stop doing. It’s something I will do until the day I die,” proclaimed guitarist/vocalist Dave Miller, the namesake of the Dave Miller Band.
The Northwest Indiana native performed all over the world over during the 1990s, before returning back to the Hoosier heartland to roost.
“Being on the road is fun, but it is a hard life,” he reflected. “Right now, I’m happy just playing at local festivals and in local clubs.”
As a guitarist, the 38-year-old Miller has earned the respect of his string-bending peers and developed a respectable fan base. Playing his axe since the age of nine, Miller recalled how an impulse album purchase began his love affair with the blues.
“I was 14-years-old and while hanging out at Woodmar Records in Hammond, I came across the live Muddy Waters album in the cut out bin. I only spent a buck or two on it and that album changed my life,” he recalled.
Miller’s passion for the blues was nurtured along the way by late local Gary, Indiana blues legend Big Daddy Kinsey, who invited the young string-bender to be the leader of his road band during the latter part of his career.
“I was a big fan of Big Daddy Kinsey and (his sons) The Kinsey Report,” reflected Miller. “I used to open shows for them at the old Bugsy’s Lounge in Highland, Indiana and while doing that,I got to be pretty good friends with (bassist) Kenny Kinsey.”
When The Kinsey Report got too busy touring behind their own album releases on Alligator Records, to continue backing up their father, Kenny called upon Miller.
“I played a lot of shows around the Chicago area with Big Daddy and we were scheduled to tour Europe,” recalled Miller. “Then Big Daddy slipped off his porch, broke his shoulder and the tour was cancelled.
While their father recuperated, The Kinsey Report asked Miller to step in as their rhythm guitarist.
“I toured the world with The Kinsey Report, playing with them for almost five years,” said Miller, who is featured on Smoke And Steel, the band’s last studio album for Alligator.
Miller officially left the Kinsey Report and the road behind him in 2000, but not his close friendships with the brothers. When he and his brothers are not gigging, Kenny Kinsey now slaps bass in Miller’s self-named band.
“I don’t have a formal ‘band’ per se, but rather a semi-constant cast of players,” Miller noted. “I have a small pool of professional musicians to pull from for my gigs.”
Most nights find him performing with elder brother Mike Miller on drums, Kinsey on bass, and Nick Byrd on guitar. “Nick took my place in The Kinsey Report when I left and still plays with them,” said Miller.
Doing some magnificent harmonizing with lead vocalist Miller, is Lee Godlewski, who once fronted Miller’s early ‘90s club band, Shades Of Blue.
Godlewski sometimes takes lead duties and when that happens, her powerful, husky voice makes everyone in a room stop, look and listen.
How this young woman with so much vocal talent has remained under the radar for so many years in Chicagoland is a mystery to me.
A typical Dave Miller Band show is anything but typical, according to Miller.
“The mood and songs change a lot from show to show, depending on who is playing with me on a given night,” he said. “It keeps things fresh. It’s definitely not the same old thing every time we play, which is good for me and good for the audience.”
Highlights of the last Miller show this writer caught were his tasty bluesy treatments of such deep cut rock numbers as Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns & Money”, Lou Reed’s “Dirty Boulevard”, and The Band’s “The Weight”.
“We do a lot of old school blues, new (school) blues and the classics too, but we have fun with some of those rock songs. We get a great response from people when we bust those out,” concluded Miller.
Do not let the “blues” tag fool you. The Dave Miller Band is a high energy entertainment group who strive to make their joints jump and jive.
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