"Bingo!"
Frat-Rock fans listen up… THE JOKER is BACK! You know the man… “Maurice and the Pompitous of Love”. He’s rocking out with a new album release after a seventeen year recording hiatus! Who…, you ask is this Maurice, the Joker?
Why it’s just Steven Haworth Miller, AKA Stevie “Guitar” Miller, a guy who still sells over a million recordings a year… an aging rocker in his mid-60’s who is presently on his annual live tour, performing at sold out concerts across the North American continent.
His latest release “Bingo” hit the shelves on June 15, 2010 with some great advanced reviews. The ten track, thirty-two minute CD was recorded at George Lukas’ Skywalker Ranch a couple years ago 
and released by Steve Miller’s own Space Cowboy label in partnership with Roadrunner/Loud & Proud Records. There were a total of forty-two songs recorded during the eleven day session, with more tracks planned for release on a future CD.
“Bingo” is a departure from the genre of music Steve Miller Band fans would be acquainted with from the 1960’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Hard-core Steve Miller fans may even be disappointed with the lack of new material, and although he has definitely embraced the blues this time around, his own distinctive sound is still intact.
"This is a party record, man," Miller tells Billboard.com. "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."
Miller has returned to his musical roots producing a collection of classic R&B and Blues covers that influenced him while growing up as a Texas teenager. “This is my pop music. When I was a kid this is what I was listening to on my car radio.” However, the ten tracks on this release aren’t just cover songs played like the original artists recorded them. According to Miller, “I didn't just want to do a cover of somebody's record. I wanted to get some material and make it my own, and these songs all lent themselves to that.”
Indeed, one of the guest artists on the album is renowned guitarist and fifteen-time Grammy nominee Joe Satriani, who trades solos with Miller. ”He just plays beautifully,” said Miller. “It blows your mind when you hear him. He is a monster guitarist - a wonderful musician.”
Miller covers a raft of blues-flavored hits, including BB King’s “Rock Me Baby” and Earl King’s “Come On” (made even more popular when Hendrix adapted the tune). He also tackles numerous tracks from Jimmie Vaughan’s Strange Pleasure album. “I just love Jimmie,” says Miller. “He’s my favorite blues guitar player of everybody playing today. He’s my man. I prefer him to his brother (the late Stevie Ray Vaughan).”
Engineer Andy Johns, probably best known for his work with Led Zeppelin, brought his expert touch and heavy rock ear to the project, while Miller and company ran through a repertoire of blues and R&B numbers carefully selected by Miller. “This is the frat rock album of all time,” he says.
As to the reason for not releasing any new material for seventeen years, let’s just say Miller wasn’t exactly pleased with the way his record label (Capitol Records) handled the release of his 1993 collection, Wide River, with the title track being their last Top 40 hit. As Steve Miller put it so eloquently, “I’ve f—ing had it with these clowns. Go ahead and drive it right into the ground, man! You guys are finished anyway. I’m not going to give you any [more] of my time.” So that was the beginning of the end.
And in his immortal lyrics Miller wrote, “Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’ slippin’… into the future.” with Stevie “Guitar” Miller, the “Pompitous of Love”, rocking his way back to his Blues roots. It's worth a listen if you want to have "big ears" for music.
Steve Miller’s thoughts on the tracks:
"HEY YEAH"
"Hey Yeah" is a tune that I first heard on a Jimmie Vaughan album, Strange Pleasure. Jimmie is one of my favorite guitar players of all time. I love Stevie Ray Vaughan, of course, but I love Jimmie more. He's deeper, he's simpler. He says more with just a handful of notes."
"WHO'S BEEN TALKIN'?"
"Who's Been Talkin'?" captures the essence of Howlin' Wolf. 'I'm the causing of it all.' I knew Howlin' Wolf. I played with Howlin' Wolf. I watched him play many, many times. I spent a lot of time with him and I can just see him saying that. And, at the same time, with these tracks, we played them our own way. We make them our own tunes. We're using them as vehicles. And that tune just snaps. It also does have that essence of 'da Wolf.'"
"DON'T CHA KNOW?"
"There are four songs off the Strange Pleasure album that we really enjoy playing and have actually become part of our repertoire and 'Don't Cha Know' is one of my favorites. Jimmie and I grew up in Dallas listening to Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin' Hopkins and a lot of great Texas musicians. And so the things I think that influenced him also influenced me - there's a lot of familiarity there."
"ROCK ME BABY"
"Rock Me Baby" is one of those songs that have always been in the R&B/blues vernacular. I've heard that song all my life in Texas. Maybe the first person I heard do it was T-Bone Walker, a kind of a jazzy version. Later, Jeff Beck did a really great version and sort of hot-rodded the whole thing. B.B. King, of course, was always playing it. When I was playing rhythm in Buddy Guy's band in Chicago, we'd do 'Rock Me Baby' and play it for 20 minutes. It's one of those songs that just has a groove to it."
"TRAMP"
"Tramp," by Lowell Fulson. That's the version, folks. Otis Redding did that great version with Carla Thomas, but if you're a guitar player, as soon as you hear the first chord on the original version of 'Tramp,' you go ‘who is that? What is it?’ That's the funkiest thing I have ever heard in my life."
"SWEET SOUL VIBE"
"Sweet Soul Vibe" is another Jimmie Vaughan tune that he wrote with Nile Rodgers from Chic. It has that vocal quality that that Hank Ballard and The Midnighters had to me. When I brought it to the band, Sonny just kind of jumped it and Norton started singing bass. We got this kind of almost gospel sound in our vocals."
"COME ON (LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL)"
"Come On" by Earl King has been done many times, probably most famously by Jimi Hendrix on Electric Ladyland. Once again, I just went back to the original and I loved it. I think all guitar players love to play that song. It's a very powerful song to do. It sort of reminded me of when I was doing Sailor and Brave New World, when I was working on guitar parts and approaching songs that way."
"ALL YOUR LOVE (I MISS LOVING)"
"All Your Love (I Miss Loving)" is another song I’ve been playing all my life. When I was very young in Chicago, Otis Rush was very good to me. I have recorded lots of Otis Rush tunes. They're all original, they're all great. I refer to this one as a love rumba. And that's a good thing to have in your repertoire if you're a guitar player - a good love rumba."
"YOU GOT ME DIZZY"
"You Got Me Dizzy" was a big hit single when I was in high school. It played all over the South. To me, there's something so special and unique about Jimmy Reed. He’s sold millions of records. He had lots of hit records. He was much bigger than Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, or any of those people. We did our own version of it, in three-part harmony. Not exactly the way Jimmy would do it. I've been recording Jimmy Reed tunes all my life, and this is one of my best."
"OOH POO PAH DOO"
"I had to play "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" at every gig I did from the time I was 13 years old until I graduated from college. 'Ooh Poo Pah Doo' was just that song. Then it just sort of went away. I started doing it again when Bobby Mallach was playing tenor in the band. I had this very kind of uptight, popping, James Brown version. We pulled it out again last year, and people got up and started wiggling, coming down the aisles. It's really fun to see a big crowd get infected by 'Ooh Poo Pah Doo.' Things get a little crazy. And, of course, that's exactly what that song was all about."
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