Guitarist, Native American flutist, and singer Bill Miller received five 1999 Native American Music Awards.Miller is here because he is a rogue rocker with a twist. One who has as much in common with Johnny Cash as he does with Neil Young. It is why disparate icons Steve Earl and Tori Amos are amount is most ardent admirers. Such contrasts are the testaments to Miller's multifaceted approach to life. Some know of his heritage, some do not. Some know he cut his teeth on rock'n'roll, even fewer know he is an artist skilled with a brush and pen, who contributes artwork to his albums. He has all too often been categorized because of one image - his bloodline.
Miller is a walking, talking, tribute to the world of contrast in which we all live. He is of Mohican-German parents, a Native American raised on the Stockbridge-Munsee reservation in Wisconsin, a far cry from the studios that have become his home in Nashville. It has been a tough life for Miller, one filled with the racism and abuse that has been so often chronicled. But ironically, his songs are about the love and hope that can be found in each of us, the inner strength that can survive. His songs are also about passage.
And it is passage that allows listeners to catch a different glimpse of Bill Miller as he reveals another side of himself. Those familiar with his work may be surprised by the 13 tracks on Raven In The Snow, a roots-driven testimony to the rock'n'roll in Miller's soul, an album that carries the listener across a landscape of crunching guitars, soaring lyrics and primal drums, accented at times by his haunting and powerful flute.
A previous album, The Red Road, was released on Warner Western in 1994 and proved to be a folk-laced spiritual snapshot. It was an intense piece of his life, a chapter during which he lost his father. But it was also a chapter in which he began to emerge from professional obscurity. His music was touching people. Eddie Vedder became the unlikely flagbearer after Pearl Jam performed with Miller at an Apache Indian benefit in Mesa, Arizona. Then Tori Amos called, and he found himself opening her shows on the Under the Pink tour. This unexpected alliance with Amos propelled Miller into the musical mainstream.
It is the sheer naked power of Bill Miller's poetry, the voice of each song, the emotion of each song that weaves the common thread. It compels you to listen.
