GET THE NEW CD
Latest CD release by
JANIE MILLER BAND titled "A Tribute"
Latest CD release by
JANIE MILLER BAND titled "A Tribute"
Sample songs from CD
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
REVIEWS
Returning to the stage after 4 years of at home motherhood, Janie Miller and her band are back to entertain the masses. Bobby E. on guitar, Randy Broughten on pedal steel guitar, Chris Johnson on bass and Loren Wiklander playing drums. The experience is heart warming and toe tapping.The night had already produced remarkable vocal performances from Bob Dunlap, Martin Zellar, and Daves Pirner and Biljan, but the magic was saved for last. Unknown singer Janie Miller) or was it the ghost of Patsy Cline?) waltzed onstage and brought down the house with a scorching version of "Your Cheatin’ Heart" (the band, too, was duly impressed – at one point, Olson and Dunlap simply strummed in dumb-struck unison, gaping at wonder at the newcomer), then joined the rest of the bar in a raving sing-or –you’re-a-corpse-along of “I Saw the Light”. The gathering of human goose bumps screamed for an encore that never came…reading my mind, a friend shouted in my ear, “It’s a moment”. Yes it was. Maybe the best of them all.
Jim Walsh
City Pages
“Miller’s revue of Patsy Cline material is dead n. What a voice. I go see her whenever I want to turn my brain off and let viscera take over.”
Barbara Brynstad
Cake Magazine
I can also heartily recommend a Thursday date with well-traveled country singer Janie Miller. Decked out in full copasetic cowgirl regalis, Ms Miller will be performing her “Tribute to Patsy Cline” show. Expect to have your heartstrings tugged – Miller’s got all the timeless nuances down Pat(sy).
Tom Surowics
TC Reader
It was one of those moments that only happens in the moves. Honestly, the A Star Is Born scenario still sends shivers down the spine of the witness to the electrocution. Last December at the Cabooze, all-star lineup of local music gunslingers gathered to pay tribute to the late, great Hank Williams. As gigs go, it was a s close to nirvana as any nightclub critter could ever hope for: superb music, packed house, good holiday cheer, and a guy walking around in a black leather jacket with a serious paining of Hank on its back.
Then it happened. Near night’s end an unknown, unassuming woman took the stage and move tentatively to the mike. A palpable wave of uneasiness swept over the Hank faithful both on and off stage, with everyone in the room suspecting the good vibe was about to disintegrate into Karaoke amateur hourness – as many tribute shows before it had. Guitarist Bob Dunlap and bassist Nick Ciola started up the band, and the mystery woman) one Janie Miller, it was discovered later, a singer from Golden Valley who performs a Patsy Cline tribute show_ belted out the first verse of “Your Cheatin’ Heart”. The stunned crowd fell silent for a second, caught it collective breath, then exploded.
“That was probably the biggest high I’ve ever had, by far,” the 27 year old Miller says. “I had done a show that night at the Canyon. And (Proton Production’ Kevin Daly, Miller’s agent got me down there, and I was like, “This is crazy. I don’t know what I’m doing. I didn’t know any of those guys on stage. But when I let out the first few words, everyone went crazy, and my bottom lip was shaking because my adrenaline started pumping so hard. I couldn’t believe it.”
Miller first became infatuated with Cline in 1986 when she saw Sweet Dreams, the Patsy biopic starring Jessica Lange. After a couple short-lived singing jobs in Minneapolis, she travelled west “in search of life” and to follow her dream to become a singer. She hooked up with a couple guys who were in the business of staging tributes to – but of course – Burl Ives and Marty Robbins, and the trio travelled around the Northwest performing at Elks and Eagles lodges for a year.
Motherhood gladly interrupted Miller’s singing career for a spell, but now that she’s back in Minneapolis, she’s formed a full band, which makes its debut Thursday at the Ragin’ Cajun with folk rocker Simon Widowson opening. And while she believes her Cline tribute show is always improving, she also realizes that the magic she helped create back in December will be hard to duplicate. “Those kinds of things are once-in-a-lifetime spontaneous moments that might never happen again,” she says. As anyone who was there can tell you.
Jim Walsh
City Pages
You can pay big bucks to go see an actress portraying Patsy Cline at the Ordway McKnight Theatre in St. Paul. Or you can pay a modest cover charge and see a singer who’s been performing Cline’s music for 11 years in barrooms and nightclubs. Miller knows her Cline – musically and otherwise. She’s studied country’s first female and crossover star, and p0rtrayed Cline in two musical productions at the Plymouth Playhouse. Moreover, Miller was one of the finalists for the title role in the breakthrough Nashville production of “Always…Patsy Cline,” the same show that’s at the Ordway. In the Twin Cities, Miller is as close to the real deal as you can get to Cline – more that 35 years after her death.
Jon Bream
Star Tribune
© 2010 JANIE MILLER BAND. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED