The Minstrel Man from Georgia

Emmett Miller

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 21, 2001)
• Original Release Date: February 6, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000002B10
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #170,916 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Emmett Miller--bandleader, minstrel, and yodeling crooner--is a true music legend. His version of "Lovesick Blues" was covered by Hank Williams, Merle Haggard recorded an entire Miller tribute album, Leon Redbone cites him as an influence, and author Nick Tosches has devoted an entire book to his fascination with the forgotten Georgian. What makes an obscure blackface musician who recorded just two dozen or so tunes in the late '20s so special? A lot. Miller existed at one of those magical crossroads in American history. His music is a bridge between the sounds of hot jazz and the as-yet-discovered "country music," and his crooning sound would be copied by Jimmie Rodgers and others, but never quite so compellingly. His music sounds like no one else's and, despite the minstrel shtick he refused to shed long after it became unfashionable, his songs are absolutely, perfectly timeless. Miller's backing band, the Georgia Crackers, was comprised of some of the best jazz musicians of his day (Eddie Lang, the Dorsey Brothers, Gene Krupa, Jack Teagarden), and they're in top form on these tunes, including "Lovesick Blues," "I Ain't Got Nobody," and "Anytime." Included are a few of Miller's recorded minstrel routines--archaic relics that can't compare to his tunes. Anyway you look at it, he led a controversial lifestyle, but his recordings are just too influential to forget. --Jason Verlinde

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice to listen to, a great singer and the real history, June 16, 2003

By	Tony Thomas (SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This is simply good music to listen to and enjoy, although it is very historically important. Emmet Miller was a weird, cool, jive performer, who is fun to listen to. If you listen to him, you know where Leon Redbone really comes from. Listen to him, and realize that when Bob Wills hired singers, he auditioned them by requesting they sing Miller songs usually "I ain't got Nobody," a tune that Miller obviously takes from Louis Armstrong's great version. Listen to him and you will see a lot of him in Tommy Duncan and Leon Rausch. Probably Hank Williams never heard Miller, or his version of the lovesick blues. Williams copied a copy of Miller's performance. To my opinion, Miller's is just as good or better.

People raised on the fiction of modern "country" music may object. That isn't what this is, thank goodness. It hasn't been white-washed, formulaed, and restricted to a group of easily borrowingly repeated tunes. Instead this is the meeting of the last of the great ministrels with pre-Swing Jazz, and above all one of the many ways the masterful musical innovations of Louis Armstrong penetrated white music.

I am sure that just like Bob Wills or Hank Penny or any of Miller's real descendants, Miller did NOT consider himself part of country music. He was a jazz man of the first generation as well as the last of the great minstrel performers, two of the great strains in the history of American culture. The musicianship on his records is that of the basic Jazz combos that Columbia's predescessors maintained at the Union Square Hotel and other Manhattan studios. I haven't checked the notes recently, but I am sure the Dorsey Brothers, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and lesser known drum and guitar players who LATER went on to front or be great soloists in the swing bands are on these sides when they worked as session recorders for whosever session was scheduled that day.

Incidentally, the one time Bob Wills appeared on the Grand Ole Opry, he almost left because they objected to his drums and horns. They even tried to stop him smoking his trade mark cigar on stage (on a radio show!!!) He never returned. As the song goes, Hank Williams got kicked off the Opry as well. The currently uninformed person whose only reference is nashville, is ignorant that a broad stream of white performers from the South who were decisive in this music like Miller were inspired and informed by Black music.

With all this said, Miller is fun to listen to. His music has a nice little swing to it. He is funny. His versions of some of the pop standards, like She's Funny This Way are great are terrific.

Yes, there are some things that are offensive and down right racist here. I am African American and have been actively involved in antiracist struggles and research all my life. This is the real legacy of life in this country, not some aberration. You're not going to learn about American culture without some of this. So don't sweep it under the rug, enjoy it.
The greater triumph against racism is that Miller helped bring much of the Black style into white southern and Western music.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thousand Frogs on a Log never sounded so special as Miller, February 8, 2003

By	Prometheus "diosprometheus" (USA) - See all my reviews

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Emmett Miller was a forgotten influence on such greats as Jimmy Rodgers, Gene Autry and Hank Williams until writer Nick Tosches rediscovered him. Now he is an American Original, and so is his sound. His Georgia Crackers is made up of Jazz greats Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, and Guitarist Eddie Lang. Hank Williams learned his "Lovesick Blues" from listening to Miller's recording of the same. Merle Haggard and Leon Redbone have both done tribute albums in honor of Miller's musical legacy. You can listen to a Thousand Frogs on a Log, but Miller will still sound unique, haunting and memorable.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emmett Miller has had a cult following for years..., November 30, 2003

By A Customer

Cool people have known about Emmett Miller for years, I mean the guy performed in blackface with a bluesy feeling, and yodeling in such an appealing country blues style. He was backed by Jimmy & Tommy Dorsey, Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti, Bunny Barigan, and many other jazz allstars on the recordings on this cd. All the tracks are jazz standards and have classic dixieland arrangents. The best sides are the ones with doalouges, where he does sort of an early Amon'N'Andy thing. Emmett is cool and a blues legend. Even jazz critic Will Friedwald wrote in his book Stardust Melodies, that Milelr recorded a very credible version of St. Louis Blues. Every cut on this is a classi, and if you hear his version of I Ain't Got Nobody, you will understand why Miller was such a big influence on Leon Redbone(also listen to Lovesick Blues, and you'll know that Hank Willaims was also influenced by Miller). This is an essential cd for fans of vintage jazz, western swing. country blues, and yodeling. A great disc full of classic jazz and country blues, for an eclectic dixielandish style! Buy one for yourself and for a friend who has a good sense of humor(musicly taht is). A gem of a cd.