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During the summer of 1972 (going into my junior year at Hillcrest
High School - Dallas, Texas) my mother badgered me into trading a blue 1969 Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, a late 60's
Fender "black face' Twin Reverb guitar amplifier and an Ampeg Leslie speaker cabinet for a late 1060's Vega "Wonder" 5-string
banjo. The trade took place at the Melody Shop in North Park Mall. I had great misgivings, but to be honest, the Strat and
Twin had been gathering dust in the front hall closet, as I was playing much more acoustic stuff on my late 60's Fender Palomino
guitar. Upon learning of my acquisition, my aunt Mary Nell - a big country music fan and a dead ringer for singer Brenda
Lee's vocal sound - paid for a series of banjo lessons from Larry Bartosh (an early student of banjo great Alan Munde, who
was at that time with the newly formed bluegrass super group the Country Gazette). I progressed very quickly, thanks to Larry
Bartosh. My first professional gig started with local Dallas bluegrass and folk band called Silver Moon in 1973, playing
at local restaurants and conventions. The song "Dueling Banjos" had just came out from the movie "Deliverance", was a Top
10 Pop Hit, and any group that could play that song and bluegrass music was getting work. Still in high school in the early
1970s, I was making $50 to $100 a night. Come to think of it, musicians are still getting paid $100 a night in
the year 2005. But back then, there was far less competition.
In 1974 I joined another bluegrass group called American
Heritage playing summer theme parks like Dogpatch USA in Harrison, Arkansas. During a weekend off, I went to a bluegrass
festival in Langley, Oklahoma, where I met future superstars VINCE GILL (who was 17 years old and playing in a kid band called
the Bluegrass Revue), a 12 year old fiddler MARK O'CONNOR (whose mother was traveling with him entering fiddle contests) and
then big national bluegrass band called The BLUEGRASS ALLIANCE.
By an interesting twist of fate, I ended up being
the banjo player for the BLUEGRASS ALLIANCE from 1975 to 1977, based out of Louisville, Kentucky. In the fall of 1975 I gave
my buddy Vince Gill his professional career start by enlisting him as the Bluegrass Alliance lead vocalist after Glenn Lawson
left to join J.D. Crowe. Vince and I produced and arranged the December 1975 LP release of the "KENTUCKY BLUE" LP on the
American Heritage label. (* Note: Lonnie Peerce, the band's fiddler, got the record label to give him sole producer credit
for Kentucky Blue - Vince and I are still peeved about it.) Audio files samples of Kentucky Blue are included at this site
for your enjoyment.
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I was subsequently banjo player for the MONROE DOCTRINE from
1977 to 1979, a Denver, CO based bluegrass band that included vocalist Danny Weiss (later of Skyline) and bassist Mark Hembre
(later of Bill Monroe and Nashville Bluegrass Band). Audio files samples of some live performances of the Monroe Doctrine
are included at this site for your enjoyment.
From 1980 to 1985 I was guitarist and banjo player for MARK O'CONNOR.
Highlights of my music with Mark included tours of US clubs and colleges, a State Dept. tour of the Middle East tours and
recording his first Warner Brothers album entitled "The Meaning Of" in Dallas, Texas with Pink Floyd engineer Buford Jones.
This was the period after Mark's work with David Grissman and The Dixie Dregs. (A little known fact: Mark was groomsman
in both of my weddings...) Audio files samples of some live performances of my work with Mark O'Connor are included at this
site for your enjoyment.
Having moved back to Dallas, Texas in the early 1980s. In 1981 I produced and recorded
an innovative banjo duet LP (as yet unreleased) with banjo player Gerald Jones that featured MARK O'CONNOR, dobro player JERRY
DOUGLASS, Texas-fiddler TEXAS SHORTY and mandolinist SAM BUSH with an all black and funk musician back-up band. The songs
were all original banjo bluegrass funk tunes, pre- Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Gerald and I will probably release this
material in 2005, so stay tuned. This project was produced before Bela Fleck's funk-influenced recordings with the Wooten
Bros. Of course, John Hartford was trying to put 5-string bluegrass banjo with funk back in the early 1970s (see John Hartford
re-issue of his "Radio John" LP). Audio files samples of some performances of the Banjo Funk Duet project are included at
this site for your enjoyment.
I subsequently went from performing into the world of music production, recording and
events. My recording resume includes releases as a producer for CURB Records, Virgin, Sony and others. I produced nationally
released songs for Junior Brown, George Jones, Vince Gill, Brooks & Dunn, Hank Thompson, David Ball, Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin,
Champ Hood, Toni Price, Flaco Jimenez, Delaney & Bonnie, Shelley Lares and many others. Audio files samples of some performances
of the above artists are included at this site for your enjoyment.
I still play the 5-string but mostly as background
to recording productions. I am currently considering new bluegrass recording release for dobro virtuoso Randy Kohrs and other
new artists. I have lots of incredible live tapes from the 70s and 80s of all the famous players I have worked with if anyone
is interested. I can be contacted at billmillet@yahoo.com. Keep pickin'.
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