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Event
An Evening with Bill Miller
Whether painting a picture with his carefully chosen words or wielding a brush to place colors on canvas, Bill
Birdsong Miller always creates from a vibrant emotional palette. Drawing from his own life experiences as well as
centuries of tradition, Miller is an artist of considerable depth. A three-time Grammy winning singer/songwriter as
well as an acclaimed speaker and gifted painter, Miller is the quintessential American artist. He has a restless
creative spirit mingled with a well-grounded perspective and a heartfelt integrity that infuse his work with both
substance and unique style.
Millers most recent work, Chronicles of Hope, is his most personal, most transparent work to date. This is the
most unique record Ive made in the years because it was delving into life and death issues. I didnt plan it to be that
way, but the songs became prophetic, he confesses. I went through a lot of life lessons.
Miller admits writing the songs on the new album was a cathartic experience. This was the most freeing record
because it was like a journal to me. On The Last Breath it talks about how you could be seeing this or breathing it
for the last time. I was writing about myself as well as the worlds issues, asking What does this land mean to me?
What does my marriage and my faith mean to me?
Miller has always had a gift for taking lifes most poignant moments and infusing them into his art and others have
warmly embraced his efforts. As a result, his list of accolades is lengthy and impressive. He has won six Native
American Music Awards, including a 2007 Lifetime Achievement honor. Hes earned three Grammy Awards,
among them his most recent in for Spirit Wind North, which was named Best Native American Album at the 2010
ceremony. Hes received international acclaim for The Last Stand, an original symphony he composed with
Joshua Yudkin and Kristin Wilkinson. Some of the top names in the music community have sought out Miller as a
collaborator, among them Michael Martin Murphey, Nanci Griffith and John Carter Cash, and hes toured
extensively, sharing the bill with a diverse slate of acts such as Tori Amos, Eddie Vedder and Arlo Guthrie. Well
known for his beautiful performances on the flute, Miller was chosen to play flute on Colors of the Wind from
Disneys Pocahontas. As a painter, his work has been featured in the Smithsonians National Museum of the
American Indian, the Trickster Gallery in Chicago, the Barbara Able Gallery in Santa Fe, and the American Indian
Community House Gallery in New York. Miller is also a highly sought after public speaker who has been asked to
address executives at AIG, MTV, FDIC and the Environmental Protection Agency.
More than the highlights on his professional resume, its his life experience that best defines Bill Miller. A
member of the Mohican tribe, he grew up in Wisconsin on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation in a home that
combined the cultures of his Native American father with his mothers German ancestry into a unique melting pot.
All I knew back then was the joy that music brought me. I think in those early days, there was a plan by God, my
creator, that I would establish a relationship with music that was pure, says Miller.
Growing up in a turbulent home with an alcoholic father, music was a means of emotional escape for Miller.
Though he couldnt see it at the time, Millers difficult childhood was shaping his future and the impact he would
eventually have on others. Refusing to let his past be an anchor that drug him down, Miller learned to move from
victim to victory and has encouraged others to do the same. Now if I were to look back, theres a master plan of
how I was being set up to be a reconciler and its taken me this long to accept that responsibility. Its a big
responsibility because Ive still got traces of my dad in me, he says quietly. I had a lot of anger issues. You cant
go through a life like that as a child on a reservation with a violent alcoholic father and not have anger issues. It all
affected me and today it comes down to recognizing who I am, what I am, what I stand for and what Im about. Its
like a compass. My compass points true north and true north is reconciliation. True north is about sacred ground.
True north is knowing what things mean to me and really not going away from that.
Taking his own personal observations and experiences and creating art that is universal in its ability to strike
people in the heart---that has long been Bill Millers gift. Whether the medium is painting, music or the spoken
word, Miller is a communicator. Its his heritage and his future, intimately intertwined, and rarely has someone used
that gift more passionately or effectively than this Native son.
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LocationDriftless Books and Music (View)
518 Walnut St
Viroqua, WI 54665
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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Contact
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