- photo by Charles Schwarz

The simple fact is, I try for the positive, but I stick to the truth; I wasn’t expecting much from the Steve Miller Band last night, and I’m not really sure why. All I know is that I showed up at Riverbend hoping that I would at least not dislike what I heard; I didn’t.

I was a young boy along the time that Steve Miller’s intro to radio began, and yes, I did learn how to play “The Joker.” That was many years ago, and the man is still playing his songs for appreciative fans. I was a young man in the U.S. Army when “Fly Like An Eagle” was released, and Steve Miller was still putting out records after I was a civilian again, and out in the big, old world. I can’t say that I’ve followed his career, but I it honesty feels like I grew up with the man’s music as background music to my life.

The Steve Miller Band opened with “Fly Like An Eagle.” The musical intro began, and it was without fanfare (I like this approach). The audience level went up a notch with anticipation, the long familiar lead guitar licks began flowing, and the band slipped into the ethereal flow of musical along with the so real world lyrics. When Steve sang the lines about feeding and shoeing children, I marveled for a moment at how timely this song released in 1976 still is.

Several things became apparent to me within the time frame of the first song, “Fly Like An Eagle,” One was that the Steve Miller Band was very hot; no second tier benchwarmers in this starting line-up. Another was that this band had projected energy from jump; right out of the gate. The third thing that really hit me was just how healthy Steve Miller looked. I’m not sure if he’s eating his Wheaties, but the man looks like he’s been taking good care of himself. I guess he’s going to lose the Keith Richards look-a-like contest for 2007. Steve Miller might just set the standard for his generation of rockers, but I digress.

“Fly Like An Eagle, “ and a good number of other Steve Miller hits, has been a mainstay on Rock radio stations for years. I’ve no idea how much this man earns in song royalties (ya know, the writer, and often the performer, gets a little scratch every time their song is played on radio, television, movies, etc), but I read in the bio that Steve Miller’s Greatest Hits collection had sold over 14 million copies – folks, that’s a whole lotta beans, if you know what I mean. The Steve Miller Band kicked out the smooth on “Fly Like An Eagle” clocking somewhere in the vicinity of minutes in the higher teens, and even included a small Rap bridge in the middle of the song.

After the song, Steve Miller gave a rousing hello to his Riverbend audience. He then launched into another song from his string of hits, “Living In The USA.” His trademark, full rhythm guitar sound really came flooding back to me at that time. I always loved the heavy, almost layered sound of The Steve Miller Band’s guitar flow, and I’m a big fan of good, solid, full rhythm guitar (I believe it’s always been an underrated instrument in Rock music, but some greats have done it justice, including the late, great John Lennon of The Beatles).

The band then started the familiar licks of a song long dormant in my mind – “True Fine Love.” I hadn’t heard, or thought of this pretty, little song for years and years, and as Steve Miller broke into the first line and the hook, “True, Fine love,” I was amazed to see a young woman, not more than 25 years old, walking by me singing along with Steve. In fact, when I took a quick visual survey of the concert grounds (quite full, by this time) I noticed a good number of people singing along with this song. While “True Fine Love” may not be one of Steve Miller’s biggest hits, it is obviously remembered with affection, if the singers in the audience were any indication. Another plus on this tune was the band’s three-part guitar dance along ala Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Then came “Abracadabra,” and some more of that wonderful, Steve Miller guitar.

Steve then introduced his “Mercury Blues,” and another surge went through the audience. I love the sound of recognition with a huge audience, it’s kind of scary, but it’s kind of cool as well. What I really found compelling about the version of “Mercury Blues” was the incorporation of what sounded like guitar inflections from Miller’s “Rockin’ Me Baby” worked into the flow of the “Blues.” Another big plus of this number was the apparent number of key modulations I thought I heard (I believe I counted four). I’ve heard very few live bands that take the time to work in such things, but it was impressive to say the least.

After a couple more songs, including a very Blues to the core number, “I Just Got Back From Texas,” Steve launched into his own version of the oft-covered Robert Johnson song, “Crossroads” – another winner (and at this point the most intense crowd reaction yet).

The band then covered one of my favorite Steve Miller songs, “Serenade.” I loved the chord progressions in this number, and I thought Steve played some of his smoother lead of the evening during this number. The next number was the acoustic accompanied, “Dance, Dance, Dance” – lovely.

At this point in the show, Steve Miller took the time to tell the audience a little story about one of the first guitars he had ever bought. He told us that he was in a music store, hunting for a guitar, and he ran across a barrel than contained a number of guitars, and it had a sign posted above it that read something like, your pick - $125. Steve tells of how he picked out this guitar that happened to have 19 strings on it (I believe he called it a sitar/guitar), and how years later a representative from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame offered him $325,000 for that same $125 guitar; did he sell that $125 guitar? Take a guess (I’ll give you a hint, he was still playing that $125 guitar, folks).

Still more music – this was turning out to be a hell of a concert.

When The Steve Miller Band broke into oh, so familiar licks from their hit “Rockin’ Me Baby,” the crowd hit a new level of recognition. I’m not sure if it was just the moment, but I honestly think the crowd’s reaction to those first few bars of guitar licks from “Rockin’ Me Baby” might have been the loudest response I’ve heard at any of my Riverbend experiences. Don’t misunderstand me, it wasn’t the largest crowd I remember ever seeing, but it sure seemed the most responsive.

The next number was another of my favorites – “Take The Money And Run.” This song, containing possibly one of the simplest chord progressions along with Johnny B. Goode and Bad Moon Rising (and others, of course) is also deceptively so. The rhythm guitar runs in this song are quite impressive, and I’ve never heard a guitarist emulate Steve Miller’s rhythm strokes on this song. Perhaps that’s because the song has been dismissed as “too simple,” but I think not. This song caused yet another round of loud audience response.

None of us in attendance could have planned a cooler, breeze filled evening. The zephyrs wafting from the beautiful Tennessee were taking full effect – it was an almost perfect setting, and then the band broke into “The Joker.” As the music died down, and Steve Miller was saying goodnight to his audience, and getting ready to close his show, I started the trek from the concert grounds. And I thought, “The Joker” is the first song I’d ever heard from the Steve Miller Band, but I truly hope there will be more to come.

Jay Mouton
jaymouton@gmail.com

- Photo2 by Charles Schwarz