6/30/2010 Steve Miller on 'Bingo!': "This is a Party Record, Man"
Returning with his first album in 17 years, The Steve Miller Band's Bingo! is a feel-good ode to the blues. Featuring songs by B.B. King ("Rock Me Baby"), Jimmy Reed ("You Got Me Dizzy") and three Jimmie Vaughan tracks, including lead single "Hey Yeah," Bingo! is as Steve Miller tells Billboard.com, "A party record, man."
Miller continues, "It's about getting up and getting ready to dance. It's like the fraternity party gigs I used to play in college. I went through and picked all my favorite tunes that I really, really loved. I wanted to make this record forever; it started off as just kind of a goof, and then it got real serious."
The first release on his own Space Cowboy Records label in partnership with Roadrunner/Loud & Proud, this June 15th release is only part one with a companion to the album slated for release next year.
Writes Billboard.com:
The sessions for "Bingo!" and its successor actually started in 2008 with co-producer Andy Johns at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in northern California. The two were working on Miller's last concert DVD, "Live From Chicago," and he recalls that "Andy said, 'Boy, I would really love to do a guitar album with you,' and I said, 'Y'know, I'm getting ready to do one.' The next thing you know...we go into Skywalker and cut 42 tracks."
Besides his regular band, including the late harmonica player Norton Buffalo, Miller -- who's been playing many of these songs on the road during the past few years -- was also joined by Joe Satriani on "Rock Me Baby" and Vaughan's "Sweet Soul Vibe," as well as by Santana percussionists Michael Carabello and Jose Areas. Among the songs slated for the next album are Reed's "Close Together," Junior Wells' "Snatch It Back and Hold It," Roscoe Gordon's "No More Doggin'," Muddy Waters' "Can't Be Satisfied," Robert Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago" and Jimmy McCracklin's "The Walk."
To read the full feature from Billboard and see what else Miller had to say about the album, go right here. Bingo! is out now! Pick up your copy online at this location.
