Happy Birthday Steve Miller

R.I.P.: Hart McNee

Raspy-voiced bass flutist and baritone saxophonist Hart McNee, a longtime musical fixture in New Orleans, San Francisco and his native Chicago, has died at age 66. McNee died Tuesday after a long battle with liver cancer.
While attending the University of Wisconsin, McNee played sax with both Boz Scaggs and Steve Miller.
After military service, McNee moved to San Francisco, where he played with such bluesmen and revivalists as Otis Rush, John Lee Hooker and Michael Bloomfield.
obit HERE

R.I.P.: Alan Livingston

Alan W. Livingston, the music executive who created Bozo the Clown and signed the Beatles during his tenure as president of Capitol Records, has died. He was 91.
Livingston began his multifaceted career in show business as a writer and producer of children's read-along record albums for Capitol Records. He came up with the Bozo the Clown character for the 1946 album "Bozo at the Circus".
Livingston was at the helm during a tenure that saw Capitol also sign acts like the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, the Steve Miller Band and the Band.
more HERE and HERE

Steve Miller hates The Grateful Dead

"I couldn't stand that band," Miller said on Thursday, during a panel at a music industry symposium, recalling the Dead's interminable jams and lengthy tuning breaks between songs.

In fact, Miller said it was much more interesting to listen to front man Jerry Garcia's stage banter than to listen to the band play its psychedelic improvisations.
the story is HERE

Of course, this didn't stop Steve from booking gigs opening for the band in the 1990's when he couldn't get a headliner gig of his own...

Happy Birthday Steve...