Bill Miller (musician)
Encyclopedia
Bill Miller is a Native American
singer/songwriter of Mohican
heritage. He was born on the Stockbridge-Munsee
reservation, near Shawano
in northern Wisconsin
.
Miller's Mohican name is Fush-Ya Heay Aka (meaning "bird song"). He began playing guitar when he was 12 years old, and is an accomplished player of the Native American flute
). In 1973, he moved to Milwaukee and won an art school scholarship; today he is an accomplished artist whose drawings and paintings have been widely praised.
In 1984, he moved to Nashville
. His biggest break came when popular musician Tori Amos
, after listening to his Red Road CD on her tour bus, asked him to serve as the opening act on her Under the Pink
tour. Miller continuously gained fans with other artists from a broad musical spectrum. He went on to tour with diverse musicians such as Pearl Jam
's Eddie Vedder
, The BoDeans, Richie Havens
, and Arlo Guthrie
and wrote songs with artists such as Nanci Griffith
, Peter Rowan and Kim Carnes
.
In 2005, Miller's instrumental Cedar Dream Songs won a Grammy Award
for "Best Native American Music Album"
.
In an interview, Bill said, "I appreciate people who have something to stand up for. I stand up for the truth. If you stand up for what you believe in you have no idea how many people you'll affect." Miller's songs have always been deeply spiritual and have clearly explored his Christian faith in his own indigenous language; Spirit Rain exemplifies this elegant dialog. He crossed genres with his 2000 record, Hear Our Prayer, which was released by Integrity Music as a Christian worship music project. While some songs were co-written by notable songwriters in the genre, he re-recorded some familiar songs such as "Praises" from The Red Road and "Listen to Me" from Raven in the Snow which, in a new context made clear that he could still be fully Native and fully a Christian. Perhaps the most notable cuts on the album were his cover of Bob Dylan
's "I Believe in You" and a reinterpretation of the spiritual
"Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around."
Miller has collaborated with other notable Native American musicians such as Robert Mirabal
, Carlos Nakai, and Joanne Shenandoah
. His project with Mirabal, Native Suite was an experimental and traditional project, featuring flute and percussion, as well as Mohican pow-wow
singing. His vocals appeared on Thomas Kinkade
's 2000 album Music of Light which featured Rob Mathes
and Australia
n Christian diva Michelle Tumes
; he also was featured on Cherokee
singer-songwriter Jason Upton
's album Great River Road.
In early 2008, Miller worked on a project in La Crosse, Wisconsin
for The Pump House, a regional arts center. Miller painted one of many 6 feet (1.8 m) herons that will be auctioned off and placed around the city in honor of fine arts. Also in that city, on April 25, 2008' and April 26, the world premier of his symphony, 'The Last Stand', was performed by the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra, along with Native American musicians and dancers, with Amy Mills conducting. Co-composed with Joshua Yudkin and Kristin Wilkinson, the symphony grew out of an inspiration Miller had, after visiting the Battle of the Little Bighorn site when he was nine. Called a 'symphony of hope', it deals with that battle, and the reconciliation Bill Miller, a man dedicated to his Native and Christian roots, feels must occur.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
singer/songwriter of Mohican
Mahican
The Mahican are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley . After 1680, many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During the early 1820s and 1830s, most of the Mahican descendants migrated westward to northeastern Wisconsin...
heritage. He was born on the Stockbridge-Munsee
Mahican
The Mahican are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley . After 1680, many moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During the early 1820s and 1830s, most of the Mahican descendants migrated westward to northeastern Wisconsin...
reservation, near Shawano
Shawano, Wisconsin
Shawano is a city in Shawano County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 9,305 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Shawano County...
in northern Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
.
Miller's Mohican name is Fush-Ya Heay Aka (meaning "bird song"). He began playing guitar when he was 12 years old, and is an accomplished player of the Native American flute
Native American flute
The Native American flute has achieved some measure of fame for its distinctive sound, used in a variety of New Age and world music recordings. The instrument was originally very personal; its music was played without accompaniment in courtship, healing, meditation, and spiritual rituals. Now it...
). In 1973, he moved to Milwaukee and won an art school scholarship; today he is an accomplished artist whose drawings and paintings have been widely praised.
In 1984, he moved to Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. His biggest break came when popular musician Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
, after listening to his Red Road CD on her tour bus, asked him to serve as the opening act on her Under the Pink
Under the Pink
Under the Pink is the second solo album by singer-songwriter Tori Amos. Upon its release in January 1994, the album peaked at US #12 and on the back of the hit single "Cornflake Girl", the album debuted at UK #1, her highest-charting UK album debut to date. It had sold around 220,000 copies in the...
tour. Miller continuously gained fans with other artists from a broad musical spectrum. He went on to tour with diverse musicians such as Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
's Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
, The BoDeans, Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
, and Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
and wrote songs with artists such as Nanci Griffith
Nanci Griffith
Nanci Griffith, is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas.-Biography:...
, Peter Rowan and Kim Carnes
Kim Carnes
Kim Carnes is an American singer-songwriter. She is a two-time Grammy Award winner noted for her distinctive raspy vocal style. Some people have called her "The Female Rod Stewart" due to her raspy voice....
.
In 2005, Miller's instrumental Cedar Dream Songs won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for "Best Native American Music Album"
Grammy Award for Best Native American Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Native American Music Album was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the Native American music genre...
.
In an interview, Bill said, "I appreciate people who have something to stand up for. I stand up for the truth. If you stand up for what you believe in you have no idea how many people you'll affect." Miller's songs have always been deeply spiritual and have clearly explored his Christian faith in his own indigenous language; Spirit Rain exemplifies this elegant dialog. He crossed genres with his 2000 record, Hear Our Prayer, which was released by Integrity Music as a Christian worship music project. While some songs were co-written by notable songwriters in the genre, he re-recorded some familiar songs such as "Praises" from The Red Road and "Listen to Me" from Raven in the Snow which, in a new context made clear that he could still be fully Native and fully a Christian. Perhaps the most notable cuts on the album were his cover of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "I Believe in You" and a reinterpretation of the spiritual
Spiritual (music)
Spirituals are religious songs which were created by enslaved African people in America.-Terminology and origin:...
"Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around."
Miller has collaborated with other notable Native American musicians such as Robert Mirabal
Robert Mirabal
Robert Mirabal is a Pueblo musician and Native American flute player and maker from Taos Pueblo, New Mexico.His flutes are world renowned and have been displayed at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian...
, Carlos Nakai, and Joanne Shenandoah
Joanne Shenandoah
Joanne Shenandoah is an Iroquois singer, composer and acoustic guitarist. She is a member of the Wolf Clan of the Oneida Nation, of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. Her music is a combination of traditional songs and melodies with a blend of traditional and contemporary...
. His project with Mirabal, Native Suite was an experimental and traditional project, featuring flute and percussion, as well as Mohican pow-wow
Pow-wow
A pow-wow is a gathering of North America's Native people. The word derives from the Narragansett word powwaw, meaning "spiritual leader". A modern pow-wow is a specific type of event where both Native American and non-Native American people meet to dance, sing, socialize, and honor American...
singing. His vocals appeared on Thomas Kinkade
Thomas Kinkade
Thomas Kinkade is an American painter of popular and commercial realistic, bucolic, and idyllic subjects. He is notable for the mass marketing of his work as printed reproductions and other licensed products via The Thomas Kinkade Company...
's 2000 album Music of Light which featured Rob Mathes
Rob Mathes
Rob Mathes is an American record producer, music arranger, composer, songwriter, and performer. He also writes bluesy spiritual-pop music.-Background:Born in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, Mathes showed interest and skill in music at a very early age...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n Christian diva Michelle Tumes
Michelle Tumes
Michelle Tumes is a popular Australian Contemporary Christian musician. Michelle was born in Adelaide, Australia.-Career:Tumes first signed with an Australian publisher, but soon after moved to the United States to write songs for CCM musicians such as Jaci Velasquez...
; he also was featured on Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
singer-songwriter Jason Upton
Jason Upton
Jason Upton is an American Christian singer-songwriter, musician, recording artist and composer. His musical creations are mostly Christian worship songs inspired by folk music. Jason Upton is evolving on the margins of the Christian music industry through his own record label Key of David...
's album Great River Road.
In early 2008, Miller worked on a project in La Crosse, Wisconsin
La Crosse, Wisconsin
La Crosse is a city in and the county seat of La Crosse County, Wisconsin, United States. The city lies alongside the Mississippi River.The 2011 Census Bureau estimates the city had a population of 52,485...
for The Pump House, a regional arts center. Miller painted one of many 6 feet (1.8 m) herons that will be auctioned off and placed around the city in honor of fine arts. Also in that city, on April 25, 2008' and April 26, the world premier of his symphony, 'The Last Stand', was performed by the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra, along with Native American musicians and dancers, with Amy Mills conducting. Co-composed with Joshua Yudkin and Kristin Wilkinson, the symphony grew out of an inspiration Miller had, after visiting the Battle of the Little Bighorn site when he was nine. Called a 'symphony of hope', it deals with that battle, and the reconciliation Bill Miller, a man dedicated to his Native and Christian roots, feels must occur.
Discography
- Bill Miller and Native Sons (1983 Windspirit)
- Old Dreams and New Hopes (1987 Windspirit)
- The Art of Survival (1990 VanguardVanguard RecordsVanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...
) - Loon, Mountain And Moon (1991 Vanguard)
- Reservation Road - Live (1992 Vanguard)
- Red Road (1993 RepriseReprise RecordsReprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
, 1994 Warner Western) - Raven in the Snow (1995 Reprise)
- Native Suite – Chants, Dances and the Sacred Earth (1996 Warner Bros.Warner Bros. RecordsWarner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
) - Ghostdance (1999 Vanguard)
- Healing Waters (1999 JVO Records, 2001 Good Cop Bad Cop)
- Hear our Prayer (2000 Integrity)
- Spirit Rain (2002 Paras)
- A Sacred Gift (2003 Paras)
- Cedar Dream SongsCedar Dream SongsCedar Dream Songs is an album by Bill Miller, released through Paras Recordings on April 20, 2004. In 2005, the album won Miller the Grammy Award for Best Native American Music Album.-Track listing:# "Unspoken Prayer" – 5:33...
(2004 Paras) - Spirit Songs: The Best of Bill Miller (2004, Vanguard)
External links
- Bill Miller official website
- Woodsongs Archive Bill Miller was interviewed by Michael JohnathonMichael JohnathonMichael Johnathon is an American folksinger, singer-songwriter, author, and playwright. He has written several books, released nine albums, and tours nationwide...
and performed on the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour. Show 222 recorded in 2002 approximately, audio only; show 427 audio, video recorded 01-29-2007.