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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZMILLER, Emmett(b 2 February 1900, Macon GA; d there 29 March 1962) His death certificate said "Entertainer'. A black-face minstrel, carrying on in a genre which was dying out but not yet politically incorrect (see Minstrelsy). He was described by Leon Redbone as 'one of the great lost entertainers'. Information about him was hard to find until Nick Tosches published his research in The Oxford American and The Journal of Country Music. Miller first recorded for Okeh '24-5, half a dozen songs as modern as 'Any Time', which he used as a theme, others as already old-fashioned as 'The Pickaninny's Paradise'. He became the star of the Al G. Field Minstrels '27, last of the touring minstrel shows, and made 26 more sides '27-8 backed by a studio band called the Georgia Crackers, including well-known jazzmen such as the Dorsey brothers and Jack Teagarden. He re-recorded some of hos older ones, and later songs ranged from 'She's Funny That Way' through 'St Louis Blues' to 'Sam And Bill At The Grave'. He yelled and yodeled as well as sang in a voice that represented the South both dying and being born again; influenced Jimmie Rodgers and certainly on Bob Wills and Hank Williams. Miller last toured with Southern circuit show Dixiana '49, and died in poverty. There was a CD compilation The Minstrel Man From Georgia in Columbia's Roots n' Blues series. Although Miller is sometimes given credit for certain songs, we don't know whether he actually wrote any, but he knew how to choose them. 'Any Time' (sometimes 'Anytime', credited to Herbert Happy Larson in 1921) was later a big hit for Eddy Arnold ('49) and Eddie Fisher ('51); 'Lovesick Blues' made Hank Williams a star in '49, the biggest hit he ever had; it is credited to Irving Mills, Cliff Friend and Hank Williams as of 1949, but the original version was published in 1922; Miller recorded both of these twice. 'Right Or Wrong' became a signature tune for Bob Wills, was later recorded by the likes of George Strait, and by 'Buck' Pizzarelli and the West Texas Tumbleweeds in 2009, Rebecca 'Becky-Lou' Kilgore singing. The first couple of bars of 'Any Time' and 'Right Or Wrong' sound similar to this writer; one wonders if Miller was one of those who invented or adapted a song and sold it outright. In any case he must be one of the biggest unknown influences on 20th-century popular music. Both Redbone and Merle Haggard devoted albums to him. He last toured with Southern circuit show Dixiana '49, and died in poverty. There was a CD compilation The Minstrel Man From Georgia in Columbia's Roots n' Blues series. |