 The Steve Miller Band is a rotating cast of musicians based
around Baby Boomer singer/guitarist Steve Miller. Performing their first shows
in the legendary Avalon and Fillmore clubs, including a renown date with Chuck
Berry, the Steve Miller Band, as it was now called, quickly rose to a national
level, performing at the Monterey Pop Festival and signing to Capitol less than
a year after they formed for a record figure. Noted guitarist Boz Scaggs joined
the group in time to appear on their 1968 debut, Children of the Future,
recorded with noted hard rock producer Glyn Johns. The band's lineup shifted for
1969's Brave New World, another Top 40 seller. After more lineup changes, the
Steve Miller Band returned in July 1970 with Number 5,their best selling album
yet.
Like his recording schedule, Steve Miller lived life quickly,
marrying and divorcing within a year. Combined with Steve Miller's personal
problems, more lineup changes and a hasty production schedule resulted in the
horrendous 1971 album Rock Love, since disowned by Steve Miller and allowed to
go out of print, as was 1972's Recall the Beginning...A Journey From Eden. To
compound Steve Miller's personal and professional problems, the musician was
seriously injured in a European auto accident in 1972 only to recover and
promptly contract hepatitis.
Steve Miller returned in late 1973 with an all-new cast of
musicians, a new, more accessible sound, and a new album, The Joker. Taking
several years off to plot his next move, Steve Miller reappeared in1976 with Fly
Like an Eagle, the epitome of '70s light rock. With light rock hits like "Take
the Money and Run," "Fly Like an Eagle" and "Rock'n Me," the album sold over
four million copies within a year. In 1977 Steve Miller released Book of Dreams,
another smash, with hits like "Jungle Love." In 1981 another Steve Miller Band
returned with Circle of Love, which, while not quite as commercially successful
as their '70s material, charted in the Top 40. Thanks to the No. 1 title track,
1982's Abracadabra once again went platinum. The Steve Miller Band stopped
touring in the mid-'80s, but the records kept coming: 1984's Italian X Rays,
1987's Living in the 20th Century, and 1988'sBorn 2B Blue. Steve Miller Band
began touring again in 1989, becoming a popular concert drawn on the oldies
circuit.
Though their most recent album, Wide River, was largely
ignored, the band continues to pack houses worldwide and sells over a million
copies a year of their back catalogue.
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