Well, since the other two comments here are about how the people posting first met Mike, I thought I might relate my story as well. As it turns out I grew up in Sioux Falls, SD, too, and started playing guitar in a trio around 1966 Mike was a year ahead of me in high school, but I have no memories of ever meeting him there. That could be because there were then two public high schools, the original SF high school, Washington, which was downtown, and where I went, and the much newer and nicer, Lincoln, which was out on the SE edge of town, way out in the suburbs, and MAY be where Mike went. In any case, Mike was already showing exceptional talent even then, much to the consternation of the rest of us budding, Jimi Hendrix Vers. 2.900 guitarists! I happened toi have a bass player friend at the time who somehow got it into his head to listen to all the young "rock" players in the city and to rank them all, I distinctly remember him coming to listen to me one night while I was at some typical teenage "jam session." He was only interested in hearing me so he sat right in front of my [rather crummy] Vox Buckingham amp for a good half hour. It made me nervous, since I knew what he was doing. It felt like some kind of bloody "audition." In any case, about a month or so later I ran into him again and he told me; "Well, I've decided that you are the THIRD best guitar player in Sioux Falls." That rather startled me since I already knew of at least three or four guitarist who cold play circles around me, especially the reclusive and enigmatic , Curtis Powell, and his blind, Vietnam Vet named friend named Rod. The two of them used to do fine duet improvisations around country, jazz, and pop standards, especially all those wonderful early Willie Nelson tunes, like "Night Life." "Funny how time slips away." "Crazy," "Man with the Blues" etc. in one of SF's downtown bars, where I would sometimes sneak in to listen to them. When I discovered that my friend thought I was the third best guitarist in town I of course asked him who were the two above me were. In his opinion, the person one step above me was someone I knew, He was about three years older than me, -- a very important difference when one is that young -- and he was definitely a fine guitarist, one who had also taken the time and made the effort to learn to read music, -- which I could only do back then with some plodding agony even though I had already learned a good deal of music theory, -- and could even play Bach from what I was told! And in FIRST Place was one, Mike Miller, whom I had heard only very briefly at a jam on the bandshell in Mackenzie Park. ... My next, and only other, memory of Mike's playing was when I turned on the TV one Sunday. They were having a telethon to support one of those congenital childhood diseases, like cerebral palsy or some such. Their special guests on the program were the then fairly popular Hagar Brothers who sounded, I must`t say, just God-awful terrible, both badly out of tune and out of time. They knew it too because at the end of their segment they said something like; "And special thanks to guitarist, Mike Miller, without whose backup playing we would never have made it through." It was true too! I got a great belly laugh out of the whole situation. But enough!!
Thanks for this post. I like Mike's playing ( I heard about him from Steve Weingart's music ). Great video! Need to get back to the " Spud " one day and catch Mike. Happy to see Chad Wackerman playing with him as well.
I had the good fortune of running into MIke when I started Jazz school and he was the first player I saw. I almost turned around and went home, glad I didn;t but it was a joy to watch someone incorporate so many different types of music into his compositions.
He is quite something. I first became aware of him hearing his album "Save the Moon" playing over the speakers at The Baked Potato and was so impressed I went to see him the next time he played there. I loved how he incorporated brass into his compositions and always had top players with him. Then, going through my postings I realized I'd seen him at least 3 times before I thought I's first seen him at the Spud - Each time playing as Boz Scaggs featured guitarist. Funny how things like that happen.
Well, since the other two comments here are about how the people posting first met Mike, I thought I might relate my story as well. As it turns out I grew up in Sioux Falls, SD, too, and started playing guitar in a trio around 1966 Mike was a year ahead of me in high school, but I have no memories of ever meeting him there. That could be because there were then two public high schools, the original SF high school, Washington, which was downtown, and where I went, and the much newer and nicer, Lincoln, which was out on the SE edge of town, way out in the suburbs, and MAY be where Mike went. In any case, Mike was already showing exceptional talent even then, much to the consternation of the rest of us budding, Jimi Hendrix Vers. 2.900 guitarists!
I happened toi have a bass player friend at the time who somehow got it into his head to listen to all the young "rock" players in the city and to rank them all, I distinctly remember him coming to listen to me one night while I was at some typical teenage "jam session." He was only interested in hearing me so he sat right in front of my [rather crummy] Vox Buckingham amp for a good half hour. It made me nervous, since I knew what he was doing. It felt like some kind of bloody "audition." In any case, about a month or so later I ran into him again and he told me; "Well, I've decided that you are the THIRD best guitar player in Sioux Falls." That rather startled me since I already knew of at least three or four guitarist who cold play circles around me, especially the reclusive and enigmatic , Curtis Powell, and his blind, Vietnam Vet named friend named Rod. The two of them used to do fine duet improvisations around country, jazz, and pop standards, especially all those wonderful early Willie Nelson tunes, like "Night Life." "Funny how time slips away." "Crazy," "Man with the Blues" etc. in one of SF's downtown bars, where I would sometimes sneak in to listen to them.
When I discovered that my friend thought I was the third best guitarist in town I of course asked him who were the two above me were. In his opinion, the person one step above me was someone I knew, He was about three years older than me, -- a very important difference when one is that young -- and he was definitely a fine guitarist, one who had also taken the time and made the effort to learn to read music, -- which I could only do back then with some plodding agony even though I had already learned a good deal of music theory, -- and could even play Bach from what I was told! And in FIRST Place was one, Mike Miller, whom I had heard only very briefly at a jam on the bandshell in Mackenzie Park.
... My next, and only other, memory of Mike's playing was when I turned on the TV one Sunday. They were having a telethon to support one of those congenital childhood diseases, like cerebral palsy or some such. Their special guests on the program were the then fairly popular Hagar Brothers who sounded, I must`t say, just God-awful terrible, both badly out of tune and out of time. They knew it too because at the end of their segment they said something like; "And special thanks to guitarist, Mike Miller, without whose backup playing we would never have made it through." It was true too! I got a great belly laugh out of the whole situation. But enough!!
Thanks for this post. I like Mike's playing ( I heard about him from Steve Weingart's music ). Great video! Need to get back to the " Spud " one day and catch Mike. Happy to see Chad Wackerman playing with him as well.
I had the good fortune of running into MIke when I started Jazz school and he was the first player I saw. I almost turned around and went home, glad I didn;t but it was a joy to watch someone incorporate so many different types of music into his compositions.
He is quite something. I first became aware of him hearing his album "Save the Moon" playing over the speakers at The Baked Potato and was so impressed I went to see him the next time he played there. I loved how he incorporated brass into his compositions and always had top players with him.
Then, going through my postings I realized I'd seen him at least 3 times before I thought I's first seen him at the Spud - Each time playing as Boz Scaggs featured guitarist. Funny how things like that happen.