Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
A nationally recognized Native American artist will be in Havre Thursday, giving a lecture at the Montana State University-Northern gymnasium at 2 p.m. and a concert in the Student Union Ballroom on the university campus at 7 p.m. Bill Miller, a 2005 Grammy winner and six-time Native American Music Award winner, will come to the university, sponsored by the Associated Students of Montana State University- Northern Program Council, as part of his multi-state tour that already has events booked through April 2008. Miller, a Mohican Indian who was raised in northern Wisconsin, has invited all area schools to attend his lecture, “Life on the Reservation.” The concert, which is free for Northern students, faculty and staff and costs $3 for adults and $1 for students, will give area residents a taste of the award-winning music he has performed in concerts where he shared the bill with the likes of Arlo Guthrie, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, The BoDeans and as the opener for Tori Amos’ international tour Under the Pink. Songs on his albums range from blues and folk music tunes to traditional flute or chant-and-drum music, somet imes blending the different styles into a style uniquely Miller’s own. Miller cites music as the way he discovered to dig his way out of the poverty present on the reservation where he grew up. Music was a large part of his life growing up, he says on his Web site, and he learned traditional music at an early age. He also listened to the likes of Barbra Streisand, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan on a Zenith AM radio. “I became a fan of all kinds of good music and the emotion it can capture,” Miller said. He got his first guitar at age 12, and spent some time playing in teen rock bands, then traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic model and began to play folk music and bluegrass, as well as playing the Native American flute. While studying art at the Layton School of Art and Design in Milwaukee he also later attended the University of Wisconsin in LaCrosse, Wis. he attended a Pete Seeger concert, which inspired him to move to Nashville to pursue a career as a singer and songwriter. After overcoming the racism he often encountered in his early career, he had success as a songwriter, working with artists including Nancy Griffith, Peter Rowan and Kim Carnes. His albums include works like 1990’s “Dustbowl Children;” “Reservation Road, Raven in the Snow,” produced in 1995, and 1999’s “Ghost Dance.” “Ghost Dance” earned Miller five Native American Music Awards in 2000: Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Song of the Year. In 2002, Miller released “Spirit Rain” and in 2004 released “Cedar Dream Song,” which earned him the Best Nat ive American Music Album Grammy. Miller, who received another Native American Music Award last year Best Song or Single of the Year, “Sacred Ground” was honored again this year at the awards. He and Joanne Shenandoah both received Lifetime Achievement Awards at the ceremony Saturday in Niagara Falls, N.Y. On the Net: Bill Miller official Web site: www.billmiller.net
