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| The Steve Miller Band Launches North American Summer Tour One of the original jam bands, the Steve Miller Band emerged from San Francisco's summer of love with a distinct sound that has proven to be timeless. Still a mainstay of the summer concert season, the band will launch a 37-city North American tour on May 24th in West Palm Beach, FL. (The band recently played three amazing shows at San Francisco's Fillmore, which sold out in under an hour.) As fresh and vibrant as ever, the Steve Miller Band melds rock, blues, jazz and pop in its own inimitable style, attracting a fervent, multi-generational audience that knows that, in addition to hits from its extraordinary catalog - "Take the Money and Run, " "Rockin' Me, " "Jet Airliner, " "The Joker, " "Fly Like An Eagle, " "Livin' in the USA" and "Abracadabra, " to name but a few - the band always comes through with numerous surprises in concert such as obscure fan favorites, classic blues standards and breathtaking improvisations. The legendary Joe Cocker, whose Classic Cocker was released by EMI last year, will be the supporting act. Miller will receive the prestigious ASCAP Golden Note Award at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' (ASCAP) 25th Annual Pop Music Awards, which will be held April 9th at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. On May 20th, Coming Home Media will release Live From Chicago, the Steve Miller Band's first-ever DVD release. The DVD captures the band's 2007 two-night stand at Chicago's Ravinia Festival in 5.1 Surround Sound and state-of-the-art high definition. In conjunction with the release, PBS will broadcast Live From Chicago during the month of June. One of the cornerstones of classic rock, the Steve Miller Band has sold a cumulative 25 million albums since Capitol Records released its debut album, Children of the Future, in 1968. A series of Top 40 albums followed, and 1973's The Joker reached #2 on the Billboard 200 while its title track was a #1 single. Fly Like An Eagle, with four Top 40 singles including the #1 hit "Rockin' Me, " was released in 1976. Now quadruple Platinum, it is the band's top-selling studio album. Book of Dreams (1977) was a massive success as well. In 1978, Capitol released Greatest Hits: 1974-78, which is currently certified 13x Platinum. The hits continued - including "Abracadabra" (from the album of the same name), which was the #1 selling single in 1983, and "I Want to Make the World Turn Around, " from Living in the 20th Century, which topped the AC singles chart for five weeks. In 2003, Capitol released a comprehensive collection: Young Hearts - Complete Greatest Hits, which traced the Steve Miller Band's 35-year affiliation with the label. A special 30th anniversary edition of Fly Like An Eagle followed in 2006, prompting the San Francisco Chronicle to observe: "He [Miller] presaged a generation of heartland rockers, from John Mellencamp to Tom Petty to Widespread Panic." The Steve Miller Band's songs have been covered by a diverse group of artists, including Smashing Pumpkins, deftones, Seal, Run-D.M.C. and k.d. lang. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Jazz News :: home page |