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Bill
Miller mixes Native American influences with rock
’Äòn roll
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Native American
singer and artist Bill Miller
(Photo courtesy Calumet Theatre)
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CALUMET ’Äì As Bill Miller sits at lunch
in a Nashville restaurant talking about his music,
his art, he tries to relate the emotion that goes
into each of his songs.
"All I’Äôm doing now is taking a palette,
and I’Äôm using the different colors that I
know," Miller says. "I have never wanted
to limit myself. Maybe I’Äôm coming of age within
myself ’Ķ I don’Äôt know. You come to certain
points in your life and you say, "Why am I
still doing this? Why am I still here?"
Miller is here because he is a rogue rocker with
a twist ’Äì one who has as
much in common with Johnny Cash as he does with Neil
Young. It is why disparate icons Steve Earle and
Tori Amos are among his most ardent admirers. Such
contrasts are the testaments to Miller’Äôs
multifaceted approach to life. Some know of his
heritage, some do not. Some know he cut his teeth on
rock ’Äòn 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 ’Ķ his bloodline.
Miller is a walking, talking tribute to the world
of contrast in which we all live. He is of Mohican-German
parents ’Äì 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 ’Äòn roll in Miller’Äôs soul
’Äì 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.
It is the sheer naked power of Bill Miller’Äôs
poetry, the voice of each song, the emotion of each
song that weaves the common thread. It compels you
to listen.
"We need the courage to turn out the lights,
so to speak, and not see the color of each other’Äôs
skin," he says. "As soon as we can just
talk and respect each other for what we are, then we
can move forward ’Ķ let our hair down with one
another. That’Äôs what my music is about."
Kevin Perrault, former manager of the Ojibwa
Casino, offered to support the show if the Theatre
would book it. The Calumet Theatre is bringing Bill
Miller and Trio to the Copper Country, in part,
through the generous support of the Ojibwa Casino
and the Upper Peninsula Power Company.
Bill Miller and Trio will appear at 8 p.m. on
Friday, November 17, 2000. All seating is reserved.
Adult tickets are $12, students $6 and selected
seating for senior citizens $6. Calumet Theatre
members receive one free seat with each adult
admission. Call (906) 337-2610 for tickets.
’Äì Dick Hazzard, Calumet
Theatre Director
November 15, 2000
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