Artist description Pop-folky jangly catchy tunes--both sad and humorous.

Music Style Singer / Songwriter - Folk / Rock - Roots / Americana

Musical Influences Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, Daniel Lanois, Wilco, Shawn Colvin, Richard Shindell, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Johnny Cash, Jerry Jeff Walker

Similar Artists Greg Brown, Gordon Lightfoot, James Taylor

Artist History In a former life, David R. Miller must have been Kaw Liga—the infamous statue from the Hank Williams tune by the same name. He appears stoic, but beneath the surface passions run deep. Maybe it’s the Iowan in him—after all he grew up in a part of the country that produced fellow singer/songwriters Greg Brown and Dan Berns, and world-renown painter Grant Wood. Though all of the aforementioned artists’ work are markedly different, they share a common cultural thread—an extremely dry sense of humor in the face of an all-too-real, and sometimes melancholic, existence. David uses that dichotomy to pour his heart and soul into beautiful songs about lost love. He then turns the page in his book of lyrics and writes absurdly funny songs—the topic of one ditty covers the relationship between a frog prince and a chiropractor who has difficulty getting dates because she is so very tall. At David’s performances, it isn’t unusual to see an audience member moved to tears and then laughter within a matter of minutes. He doesn’t know exactly when he acquired the ability to touch people with lyrics and melody. “It probably happened while I wasn’t looking,” he jokes. “Probably while I was looking down at the guitar because I had to play an F chord.” There is some truth to the implication that David’s skills were gradually honed because musicianship has always been a part of his life. David’s father played lap steel guitar that gushed, whined and wheezed a genre of music now classified as “Roots” or “Americana.” His own musical education started on piano and he eventually moved on to bluegrass banjo. Late at night, while he was supposed to be asleep, David hunkered beneath his bedcovers and listened to a transistor radio picking up blues music from the deep South. He instinctively knew it was somehow different, but also the same as the roots music his father played and the bluegrass he was exploring. David had little interest in the guitar until his sister came home one day with the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album and Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits. Shortly after that, a childhood friend shared some Neil Young records, and his friend’s father, a tenor banjo player, introduced David to traditional Irish ballads. Again, David instinctively knew all these genres and artists were different but somehow related. After high school, David’s parents urged him to use money given as graduation presents for college. Instead he bought his first guitar. At the university, David began writing and performing in local bars. Success was hard to find among students who were raised on the disco craze of the 1970s and overly-synthesized pop music in the ‘80s, but he played on in the face of cultural adversity. David’s post-college musical experience found him establishing Wylde Nept, a band of surprising popularity comprised of a group of rag-tag, but like-minded, friends who also enjoyed Irish ballads. After five years with that group he decided to focus on songwriting and performing solo and, in 1999, David recorded his solo debut, Songs in Black and White.

Group Members David R. Miller

Instruments Guitar, Harmonica

Albums Songs in Black and White

Location Iowa City, IA - USA

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