WUOT air date: March 5, 2008
UTTV air dates: March 5, 6, 8, and 9 (all showings at 8pm except on Thursday at 7pm)
Flip Side air date: March 5
Songs Performed:
Video archive: Watch the entire episode on the embedded player on this page or visit our YouTube channel
Audio podcast: Coming Soon!
About Scott Miller:
Unlike most of the faux-simplified-effete-elite-Americana/alt-country world, Scott Miller was actually raised on a working farm. His parents were a WWII generation couple that carried on the Spartan lifestyle of their Scotch-Irish forefathers. Scott has described the lifestyle as “Amish that drink.”
In 1990, Scott moved to Knoxville, where he started scraping a living in local bars and clubs. The owner of a now defunct bar called Hawkeye’s quickly recognized Miller’s genius and gave him a regular night, where he built a loyal legion of fans and record bar tabs. The marquis outside said “Scott Miller: Every Damn Friday” for four long years, while Miller began touring regionally and building a following.
The next phase found Scott in the roots rock band called the V-roys, the first band signed to Jack Emerson and Steve Earle’s E-Squared label. His songwriting became more mature. His understanding of the music biz became more astute, but his guitar playing remained the ham-fisted flat-picking of his youth.
Sugar Hill picked Scott up for his next phase of musical life. Three studio records followed:
Before recording Citation, Scott Miller and the Commonwealth landed a TV gig on the WB Network. “Hell, I got the job as band leader on Jeff Foxworthy’s Blue Collar TV show,” Scott recounts. “Suddenly the band and I didn’t have to load up and travel every night, we could walk across from the theater where it was taped into a five-star hotel bar, and make great money doing it… I hated it, of course.”
Scott and the band have now released a live record: Reconstruction. “We’ve been a hard-touring band with a show worth the hard-earned money of our fans, and this was a way of documenting that,” Scott says.
“I play solo half the time and I play with the band. I try to write good songs that have some brains to them, and write them well enough that I can go out and play them every night and not get sick of myself. I want what anybody else wants from a means to live: a means to live. And I mean it.” (Adapted from Curtis Jenkins)
Check out more about Scott Miller and the Commonwealth at www.thescottmiller.com.
