By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Juniper Brewing is adding a new wrinkle to the downtown BG music scene.
On Sunday, Sept. 22, Miller and The Other Sinners will bring their Southern Soul by way of western New York for a gospel brunch starting at 11:30 a.m.
Zach Tracy, owner of Juniper, said he was approached by local music aficionado BrIan Young about doing the show.
Young was bringing David Miller and the band to town for a house show that’s sold out. He wondered if they could tag on the Sunday show.
Tracy was game
Miller for his part is no stranger to playing on Sunday mornings. It is how he got his start.
Miller, who grew up in Buffalo, New York, started playing guitar at 11. He had already dabbled on saxophone and piano and listened to blues, soul, and rhythm ’n’ blues. It was guitar that hooked him and hymn and Contemporary Christian Music was what he played.
His father was a church musician, and his grandfather was an evangelist. So he put his talents together as a church musician.
Performing outside the church, he said in a telephone interview from his car, was frowned upon.
He got married and started raising kids. Playing in church kept his love for music alive.
Eventually he started writing his own songs performing them solo or with various bands he assembled, one of which featured his teenage son on drums as well as a Buffalo veteran musician.
After a few years, he wanted to play more, but his son wanted to be a teenager, not a touring musician.
Eventually Miller decided to quit his day job and focus on making music.
The names and bandmates came and went. The different musical sounds he’d heard in his youth blended into a soulful, driving sound.
From that emerged Miller and the Other Sinners. At one point he was recording with the rhythm section from the sacred steel band the Campbell Brothers. (The brothers were headliners at the 2006 Black Swamp Arts Festival.)
Through that he was joined by steel guitar virtuosos Darick Campbell and Chuck Campbell. They toured together some until the Campbell Brothers went into hiatus following Darick’s death in 2020.
Miller has now solidified the line-up. The Sinners may appear as a solo act, David Miller of the Other Sinners, or as a trio, or with a couple horns. For larger festivals, Miller will even enlist the backup singers.
It will be the trio performing at Juniper on Sunday. Miller will be joined by drummer Isaiah Griffin and Steve Davis, who plays keyboards and provides the bass lines, a show in itself.
With shifting personnel in the past, Miller would write the songs and teach them to the band.
Now with a stable lineup, he collaborates more with his backing musicians. The next album, he said, will be developed as a collaborative effort.
His songs come to him in various ways, including when he’s on the road. “I get a ton of ideas when I drive,” he said. “My brain can kind of subconsciously float a bit while my eyes are on the road.”
The ideas may be an overheard phrase or something he’s experienced, or someone else has.
He recalled driving to a gig in Buffalo one night, and the gist of a song came to him. By the time he got to the venue he had two verses. He added two more during the break, and the band jammed on the tune that very night.
For his next solo session, he’s working on what he’s calling the Miller Family Album. The songs are “just snapshots of relatives telling about them and their stories.”
