David Miller

• Born: March 17, 1883, Ohio River, OH
• Genres: Folk
• Instrument: Producer
• Representative Songs: "Lonesome Valley", "Graceful Dance

Biography

"He brings good cheer to the mountain folk" was how the Gennett label advertised the recordings of the blind troubadour David Miller, who basically claimed the rolling hills of West Virginina as home, although he happened to have been born ten miles over the state line in Ohio. Miller was one of the earliest artists to record old-time music, cutting sides for the Starr Piano Company label beginning in late 1924. He continued recording for this outfit in 1927 and 1930 and also made several records for Paramount, another label that pioneered in recording Appalachian artists in the '20s and '30s. His recordings tended toward sentimental ballads such as "Since Mother's Gone" or harsh accounts of bad times such as "It's Hard to Be Shut Up in Prison." He knew about roughing it first hand. Miller grew up toiling at a fruit farm, entering the army in 1917. This is where he contracted a condition known as granulated eyelids. Army doctors announced that Miller would go blind; surprisingly, the same doctors had noticed nothing wrong with the young man's eyes at his induction examinations. Nonetheless or perhaps typically, army brass refused to take responsibility for the condition and Miller was turned loose with no form of compensating pension. He took up the guitar after total blindness had set in. In the early '20s he moved with his new wife to Huntington, WV, where he joined up with banjoist Cecil "Cob" Adkins to become the first performers on station WSAZ, picking through two-hour slots twice daily from 1927 through 1933. Thus, the performances of Miller and his partners became widely heard in the Appalachian regions and the blind artist built up quite a following.

Also beginning in the Huntington period and lasting through the early '40s was his relationship with a band called the West Virginia Mockingbirds. An expanded string band, the group included Miller plus four brothers who all played fiddle: Ed, George, Albert, and Frank Baumgardner. Another member of the latter family, Jim Baumgardner, played banjo, and the stage was further crowded out by Belford Harvey, doubling on banjo and guitar, and old sidekick Adkins on "third chair" banjo. This group was popular on radio as well as in live shows at churches and local dances. Eventually Miller's son, Davy Miller Jr., joined the band's ranks on guitar, making the assembled lineup sometimes seem like a delivery of instruments to a music store.

In the '40s and '50s, Miller played at country & western bills at the main theater in Guyandotte, WV, sharing the program with classic country performers such as T. Texas Tyler and Patsy Cline. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide

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