Cattle farmer/songwriter/guitarist/singer Scott Miller heads back to Court Square Theater Nov. 17, for a performance guaranteed to energize his loyal fans and convert new ones to his particular style of American Southern rock.
A founding member of the band that became known as the V-Roys, Scott Miller grew up on a farm in Swoope, VA. After that group split up in 1999, Miller formed Scott Miller and the Commonwealth, which briefly served as the Blue Collar TV house band.
Miller’s songs reflect his academic degrees in American History and Russian Studies, with references to home, family, history, geography, writers, and Appalachia. The Lexington Herald-Leader wrote of Miller’s first albums after the V-Roys as “strong, folk-infused songs” in which “the boozy charm of his music was innocuous.”
For his latest album, Miller settled on the name Ladies Auxiliary, thanks to the simple fact that everyone involved, save Miller himself, is, in fact, a lady. The A-list of XX-chromosomers includes the entire band: Bryn Davies, Rayna Gellert, Jen Gunderman, Deanie Richardson, and Megan Carchman. The record was produced (and performed on) by Anne McCue, who brings a smidgen of vintage Django jazz and Charlie Christian swing to the arrangements.
In addition to the covers “Mother-in-Law” and “With Body and Soul,” there’s a co-write: “Ten Miles Down the Nine Mile Road,” which found Miller partnering with Robin & Linda Williams for a kitchen table writing session.“Middle Man,” also known as the “Scott Miller Theory of Relativity,” finds Miller waxing blatantly and uncharacteristically autobiographical. It’s a story of a rural kid who went to a school where the first day of hunting season was a holiday, where his TV could pick up only two stations, if it was cloudy enough. Miller turned first to books (the whole family read all the time), and then painting, and then learned to play three chords on the guitar and started telling truths.
Miller’s “Epic Love” sounds like something Miller’s hero and fellow Shenandoah Valley native Sam Houston would have written in his younger and wilder days, and Miller’s Shenandoah Valley cattleman side (in 2011 he moved back to help on the family cattle farm) comes through on “This River’s Mine / This Valley’s Yours.”
Scott Miller will perform at Court Square Theater on Saturday, Nov 17. Doors open at 7:00 PM, with the show beginning at 8:00 PM. Tickets are $25 advance and $30 at the door. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit valleyarts.org or call 540.433.9189.
Arts Council of the Valley’s Court Square Theater is located at 41-F Court Square in Downtown Harrisonburg
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