|
Listen to Music from the CD
"The Red Road"
Tim Springer, IICOC and Bill Miller
Bill at the Gathering 2002
Spurs Magazine Presents Bill Miller;
By Sandy Nathan
Dear Friends,
This hunk of cyberspace started out as the article, "Bill Miller--the Halloween Edition." "The Never-ending Article", I called it while writing. It did end, and I think successfully. I added a blurb about Bill's new CD, "Ghostdance," just before leaving town for the Holidays in 1998. Is this page a journal? No. Too small for that. Is this a newsletter? No!!! That brings up deadlines and keeping up and making news and stuff. Schedules. Ycch! We barely get the horses and kids fed on time around here. No newsletters. Is this a cyber-altar to an adored star? No!!! Triple ycch. I hate that. People attributing perfection to mortal humans who happen to sing or dance or juggle well. No, this bit of writing isn't that, either.
What is it, then? I think of this space as a writer's note to her friends. A loosely organized contemplation of Bill Miller's impact on my mind and soul. What I do these days is write and think. I'm working on a family of interrelated books -- thrillers all. While I'm writing, people, things, events, books, and music impact me. This letter lets me share the portion that intersects with Bill Miller in a way that I hope benefits all of us: you , me and Bill. I'll add new articles as events unfold.
Who's Bill Miller, by the way? Some of you may not know. He's the guy in the photo above. Bill is a Native American singer and musician of German-Mohican ancestry raised on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation in Wisconsin. My interest in Bill Miller began a couple of years ago when a CD in a Western store leapt into my hands and said, "Buy me." I did, and got knocked flat. The CD was called, "The Red Road." I found that my life and Bill's could not have been more different, or more similar. Bill Miller's music was a catalyst for me, popping up emotional business like fish jumping out of a pond. I'd listen to Bill and up would come issues that I'd have to deal with pronto or they'd start to smell. I've been a fan of Bill's ever since.
Why does Bill Miller have this powerful emotional effect? He has overcome the worst sort of poverty, racism and despair. Bill Miller hasn't turned out right, given the hand life dealt him. With his background, he should be insane, a criminal, or dead. He isn't. He's a very positive, inspiring man who can fill a room with spirit and put everyone in it in touch with his or her soul. He's a devoted family man who's been married over twenty years and has five children. His music is beautiful and sweet--and he doesn't pull any punches. Miller describes the world as it is and the job before all people of good will if we are to keep our world livable. He talks about acceptance and forgiveness. Faith and hope.
I have devoted this space to Bill Miller because he is an inspiration.
My very best wishes to all of you,
By Sandy Nathan |
Bill Miller
“Fush-Ya Heay Aka”
Bill started playing guitar at 12, playing along side an AM radio then graduating to local rock bands as a teen. At the “2006” Grammy’s, Bill won the Best Native American Music Album, for “Sacred Ground, a tribute to Mother Earth”. The album has drawn attention as the best collection of contemporary Native music to be released in years. The album is a compilation of well-known artists including Grammy winners Primeaux and Mike, Grammy nominee Joanne Shenandoah, best selling and highly acclaimed artists Walela (Rita Coolidge, Priscilla Coolidge and Laura Satterfield), Robert Mirabel and Star Nayea. The entire album is a companion to a documentary film entitled “Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action”, which recently aired on “PBS”. Homeland takes an in-depth look at the environmental hazards threatening Native American reservations as well as call to action to save the environment.
I remember watching Bill Miller perform with Michael Martin Murphy and the Sons of the San Joaquin in the late eighties and his first album in “91” “Loon Mountain and Moon”, then in “2000” Bill burst on the seen winning five Nammy’s, including: Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Song of the Year.
Fush-Ya Heay Aka (Bill Miller) is an inspiration to all Native performers.
By Tim Springer
Biography
Spirit Rain & Cedar Dream Songs
Over the past three years, singer/songwriter Bill Miller has produced two amazing projects, SPIRIT RAIN and CEDAR DREAM SONGS that exemplify his artistry by blending the Native American and western folk/blues traditions in something wholly new. These are works of a man who knows first-hand life's keenest joys and sorrows, a man who distills experience into a potent musical style.
CEDAR DREAM SONGS brought Bill great recognition by winning this year's Grammy Award for Best Native American Recording. This instrumental CD contains nine beautiful songs which, as the subtitle suggests, are perfect examples of ‘Musical Portraits on the Native American flute.'
A Mohican Indian from northern Wisconsin, Bill Miller has long been one of the most admired figures in the Native American music arena and beyond. As an award-winning recording artist, performer, songwriter, activist, and painter, he's been a voice for the voiceless, a link between two great and clashing civilizations. On SPIRIT RAIN, he walks the path of reconciliation in a set of fourteen heartfelt songs and evocative instrumentals.
Co-produced by Bill and Michael von Muchow, and written or co-written entirely by Bill, SPIRIT RAIN took the singer back to his roots. It was recorded at Actual Sound Studios in La Crosse, WI, not far from the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation he called home. "It was very different from being in a media center like L.A. or Nashville," says Bill. "Everyone turned off their cell phones. My buddies and I would go fishing on the Mississippi River. The recording was low-tech too: 16-tracks, no digital. I could have pushed it technically, but I felt closer to the spirit doing it this way."
That spirit comes through on songs like the prayerful "You Are The Rain," the acoustic-flavored "Rain Down Your Love," "The Promise," and "Never Too Far," which celebrate the divine glory of sky, prairie, mountain and rain. Says Bill, "This album is about attaining a measure of wisdom through suffering. It's about the pieces of my life." That sentiment rings true in songs like "Face The Blues," a hot-blooded blues tune about being knocked down and getting back up again. Tracks like "I Believe" and "Love Sustained" make bold statements about living out one's personal credo, while songs like "Little Brother (Spirit Rain)" and "Underneath The Blue Sky" ingeniously adapt traditional Native American musical conventions to the folk/rock idiom. Instrumentals like "Approaching Thunder," "Sun Dog," and "Red Sky Heart" showcase Bill's mastery of the Native American flute, while "1st Dream" is a thrilling chant-and-drum song performed by members of the Ho-Chunk Nation. Read More
|
