I'm always surprised at the differences represented by all of the various music hosting sites online. No two, however alike, are exactly the same. Each strives to present their own approach to representing those who are musically talented. Some host online contests that allow listeners to choose what artists they like best. Some help artists seeking performance opportunities. Others specialize in helping artists sell their music and still others lean more toward social networking fans with players, players with lyricists or players with other players. Many offer all of the above and more.

In January, I posted the video of my song "Just Another Passerby", that was recorded during my performance at the Historic Everett Theater last November (11/18/11), at one such site, where artists compete with one another for the attention of listeners and viewers. There are supposed awards for such competitions but I have no illusions about winning. Generally, the production value of my recordings is rather low-fi and I like them that way. In this day and age, where so much digital flash is readily available for players to indulge in, there's a lot of smoke and mirrors to compete with. It's especially challenging for someone like me, who eschews that plugged in digital approach to offering music.

In competitions like this, that categorize the genre of music one can present but often offer a lot of latitude in other factors pertaining to an artist's or band's presentation, one can find that they're competing with all manner of approaches to the theme. Therefore, it's always amazing to learn that my solo acoustic endeavors, playing finger style bottleneck slide Blues and offering my own original songs have actually managed to successfully compete and win in such contests. 

The video of my song "Just Another Passerby" was entered in the Pro Performance Video category for 'live' performance videos and was viewed well over 700 times in January and won the rank of being among the top 40 videos viewed. I guess that I must be doing something right. 

"Although I am a Londoner born and bred, and in the Sixties was the ghost writer for the DC5 and wrote some of their songs like 'Bit's and Pieces', 'Because', 'Anyway you want it', my first two loves are Country music, and the Blues, and Reggie Miles in my humble opinion is great, it just does not get any better than this, what a talent. Oh, and by the way I love the sound of that 'resonator guitar' he also uses, Ron Ryan."

Unsolicited comments/reviews just don't get any better than this! Thank you Ron!

This will be my European debut!

It's been a dream of mine, for a long time, to check out the scene on the other side of the pond. I've had a couple of musical friends who did and they never came back! I've heard, from my friends in Europe, that folks in that part of the world really enjoy street entertainers and that the acoustic American Folk/Blues genre is much loved. It sounds as though, what I have to offer, would fit right in.

My bottleneck slide Blues style is close enough to the roots and original approaches used by some of those that pioneered the Blues genre, that many from the Deep South have described my playing as being from the Delta and reminding them of home. The music of those original acoustic Blues artists has certainly influenced my own songwriting and playing.

I'm already seeking additional performance opportunities to take advantage of while in that region. I'd enjoy sharing my music with as many folks as possible, in as many places as possible, throughout Europe, the U.K. and Ireland. Yes, I know that sounds like a full agenda. Well, I say, "If you're gonna dream, then dream big!" :o)

For my first stop, on my first European tour, I'll be in Maasmechelen, Belgium, on the last full weekend in June (25th-26th). I've been invited to entertain at the Del Mundo Street Theater Festival. 

I am open to booking shows, that might be willing to host my musical endeavors, at any and all events beyond that date. If you know of a festival, venue or event of any kind, from theaters to house concerts, from staged venues to street scenes, that would be interested in featuring my talents between late June and early August, please feel free to contact me!

reggiemiles *at* gmail.com 

Thank you!

"That Stuff You Got" is #11 out of 1,059 Acoustic Blues and #78 out of 44,673 Blues songs @ SoundClick

"That Stuff You Got" is #12 out of 1,059 Acoustic Blues and #71 out of 44,655 Blues songs @ SoundClick

http://www.soundclick.com/reggiemiles

"That Stuff You Got" is now #18 out of 1051 songs in the Acoustic Blues chart at SoundClick! Sweeeet!!!

http://www.soundclick.com/reggiemiles

This live version of "That Stuff You Got" is featured in my newest recording project "Reggie Miles LIVE At The Muse". 

I must be doing something right! "That Stuff You Got" is now currently #41 out of 1049 Acoustic Blues songs and #375 in Blues out of 44,595 songs posted in the Blues charts at SoundClick!

Reggie Miles is in the process of releasing a new LIVE recording that contains songs from his performance at The Conway Muse on 1/21/11, "Reggie Miles LIVE At The Muse". This material was captured direct to digital media by Tom Richardson, the owner of the venue. This collection is about 77 minutes in length and includes 14 songs.

Some of these are brand new, never before released songs, "The Reason Why", "Makin' Bacon", "Just Another Passerby" and "That  Stuff You Got". Studio versions of these will also be among those featured in Reggie's next three all original song projects. 

Sorry kids!

Due to unforeseen circumstances,

this show will not take place.

Just over a year ago, I was invited by my friend Artis The Spoonman to help him with a video project. That project was slated to appear on MTV's new online site called B-Sides. Director Virginia Bogert's short doc has just been posted online. The video features pieces of several of my original musical compositions, including my song, "That's More Like It". 

*Great new images captured by Susana Bonadea of my performance at The Conway Muse!!! There are over 40 hi res images. So, be prepared to wait if you have a slow connection speed.

http://web.me.com/sbportfolio/SHOWZAM_PHOTOGRAPHY_BY_SUSANA_BONADEA/MUSIC/Pages/Reggie_Miles.html

Look at their proposed rules for street performers on their website

http://www.nwfolklife.org/get-involved/street-performers

Then you can read through the last couple of paragraphs of the 5th page of the actual appellate court case here.

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/06/24/05-35752.pdf

This is a link to the entire court case pdf file but the pertinent info is on the 5th page. It describes the rules that were challenged in court by Michael Berger. If you compare the rules in the court case, which, btw, was won by Michael, to what is being proposed by the NW Folklife Festival you will see some remarkable similarities.

How is it that the festival could have magically chosen some of the exact same rules to enact that the Seattle Center tried to use to restrict street performers? Hmmm, I wonder? Was it because the NW Folklife Festival saw the Seattle Center getting away with using them, so they thought that they perhaps could get away with using them too? What do you think?

Here are some of the restrictions on the NW Folklife Festival site.

The following areas are off limits for street performing:

* Covered walkways
* Within 30 feet of a captive audience
* Washrooms or entrances and exits of washrooms
* Entrances and exits from any facility, door, loading dock, elevator or stairway
* Inside of any building
* The Fisher Green programmed area (the entire block). This space designated as a jamming space.
* In the breezeway between the Alki Room and the Snoqualmie Room
* On the South, East and West sides of the Alki Room
* Handicap access to any location
* Any areas designated by the Street Performer Coordinators as "off limits"

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

And below are the rules deemed unconstitutional by the courts. You'll note a disturbing trend being proposed above by the NW Folklife Festival. They are trying to dictate where we can and cannot play on the grounds. The courts have deemed these actions as unconstitutional.

Read the rules F.5, G.4, and C.5 below. They all pertain to the court having granted our freedom of expression as being unrestricted as to place. Even though the NW Folklife Festival would have us believe otherwise, our freedom of expression cannot be dictated to us by this event. Yet, that is what they are trying to do.

They are in direct violation of the court's decision in this matter and as such in support of denying Americans our First Amendment rights on the grounds of this public park during this national holiday.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Rule F.1, which requires
"street performers" to obtain a permit before performing at
the Center and to wear a badge displaying that permit while
performing;

Rule F.2, which sets forth the terms and conditions
for acquiring a "Street Performer Permit";

Rule F.3.a,
which bars street performers from "actively solicit[ing] donations";

Rule F.5, which limits street performances to sixteen
designated locations; and

Rule G.4, which prohibits all Seattle Center visitors, other than Center employees and licensed concessionaires, from engaging in "speech activities" within thirty feet of a "captive audience."

Rule C.5 defines a "captive audience" as "any person or group of persons: 1) waiting in line to obtain tickets or food or other goods or services, or to attend any Seattle Center event; 2) attending or being in an audience at any Seattle Center event; or 3) seated in any seating location where foods or beverages are consumed."

My next show at Old Strokers MC Works will be during their 3rd Annual Motorcycle Art Show

Listen for me on May 16th playing new & used bottlenck blues after lunch, about 1pm

I was approached by musical artist/sound guru Phil Erb while I was playing on the street at Seattle's Pike Place Market. Phil is a sound explorer. We share some of the same fascination with playing with sound.

Phil's sensitivity to the sounds and harmonics that my saw can produce led him to capture a small sample of my saw playing as I attempted to bow in the third harmonic octave of my Mussehl and Westphal 30 inch baritone blade. I don't regularly explore that octave. It's too high pitched to be of use as I play the melodies that I usually offer.

Phil manged to manipulate the sample that he captured into one of the most unusual passages that I've ever heard. He granted me permission to share it and I'm thrilled to do so. You can check out what he was able to create, "third story of the sawmill" from among the songs on my MySpace profile.

http://www.myspace.com/reggiemiles

It's spooky, eerie, ethereal, otherworldly and very powerful stuff. Enjoy!

WARNING! If you are easily possessed by demons, are sensitive to spirits beyond the grave, a regular church goer from any standard devil hating denomination, or if you believe that aliens, from other planets, are abducting you and are committing lude, indecent, obscene, pornographic, wanton, salacious, impure, lascivious and/or licentious acts upon your person, or if you suffer from multiple personalities, delusional states of irrational behavior brought on by smoking marijuana to excess, or taking drugs like acid, mescaline, peyote, crack, cocaine, ecstasy or any of a number of other over the counter medications that might leave you in altered states of reality... listen to this track at your own peril!

More than 25 performance artists will share their talents.

All proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders and Food for the Poor.

Jeff Simmons was just added. He'll be joining Valerie Rosa. Jeff played with Frank Zappa in the 1970s.

Sorry lovers! Tickets for the Lovefeast, scheduled for Saturday, February 13th are no longer available.

If you were one of lucky ones that managed to get reservations for my last show at Old Strokers, their Bluesfeast, you already know how much fun was had by all. Bluesfeast tickets sold out 2 weeks in advance, at $30 per ticket.

Once again, I’ve been invited to entertain the guests at Old Strokers Lovefeast dinner show on Valentines weekend. I’ll be offering my favorite blues and novelty love songs for the occasion. It’s sure to be a real treat!

Contact Sandy or Randy (425-387-3923) to lock in your reservations for their next special dinner show.

If you’d enjoy hosting my talents at your next gathering, whether a house or theater concert, festival performance, or? Contact me with your ideas at the following email address.

reggiemiles@gmail.com

HAVE BLUES – WILL TRAVEL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVxVguWfouA

This video was captured at Seattle's ACT Theater in the Spring of 2009 as part of my performances for The Moisture Festival, a wonderful vaudeville, comedy and variety show.

My song was featured in a story by Robert Tomsho that made the cover of The Wall Street Journal on February 6th 2009. His article, about songwriters who have taken on the recession, includes the songs of Woody Guthrie, Neil Young, Tom Paxton and others. His story has drawn international attention to my songwriting and performance pursuits. Not bad for a guy that plays on the street with a guitar made out of recycled garage sale junk! Being mentioned in the same article with such contemporaries and heroes was priceless!

The epic tale, expressed in my song, is nothing short of monumental in scope, the greed of the "haves" versus the need of the "have-nots." It is the definitive story of our life and times, that has brought our world's economic institutions to the brink of collapse. For those on the short end of this stick the buzz words are recession, depression, homelessness and joblessness on an unprecedented global scale.

Follow the link to view this one. It features me offerin' a brief intro about the various kinds of recycled garage sale junk that I used to make my homemade resphonic "Nobro" geetar. Then, I demo my Frankenstein monster by slidn' one o' my bottleneck blues interpretations and accompany that by huffin' a little blues harp.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_fY9NHTzuE

Okay, I'm officially excited.

I've played to standing room only audiences and received standing ovations for my acoustic bottleneck slide folk/blues performances but having a show sell out two weeks in advance at $30 a ticket is a first for me. Of course, I knew that this was a very real possibility. Within the first week of organizing this event, the word of mouth advertising alone had two thirds of the seats sold.

The venue, Old Strokers, has a comfortable and casual atmosphere, with limited seating and they serve great food. They also have a lot of friends that support their special events.

They're already talking about featuring my music in a future event. If you missed this show because you didn't hear about it in time or hesitated too long, fret not, there will be more opportunities to enjoy the hospitality at Old Strokers and more chances to hear my blues.

You can even invite me to entertain at your next event or gathering. Drop me a note and let me know what you've got planned.

reggiemiles@gmail.com

I thought I’d kick-start the month with a review of ’She’s Trouble’….

Now, I am a HUGE blues fan (And I mean blues – not the kind of Gary Moore rock that has neither soul nor groove!) – I even run British blues band, so reviewing good blues is always a pleasure!

And this is good blues.

I note from your page that you made your own ‘Nobro’ – (Great name BTW)! – and your acoustic sound is awesome – I have a 57 National Duolean, which is much more brittle sounding than yours – good for soloing but not really for self-accompaniment!

Sound-wise I’d say you’re on a par with John Hammond (He maybe plays a bit better, but he’s never done anything else so I should bloody well hope so!)

The subject matter of the song is pure blues, and it’s delivered with the passion & integrity of some of the early blues men – you’ve developed the knack of making the drones on a six-string sound like a 12-string on the open parts of the one-chord – excellent playing.

Vocally, I thought this was pretty close to Ry Cooder in terms of delivery, it’s got more grit & gravel than his style. It also reminded me of something by Ben Harper, but I can’t remember which tune. – The main similarity is in the way you take the tail of each line in a different direction – I think it’s a down-swing to the lyric, but it works really well and gets the point across.

All in all, this is a really good blues. You’re obviously an accomplished player with a really good feel for the genre. And the production is excellent!

There are so many good artists doing this that a mark out of ten is really difficult, as there’s so much to compare it with, but next to the likes of Ben Harper, Eric Bibb, John Hammond (And Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Unplugged) I’d have to give it 7/10 but if I was comparing with other unsigned acts, that would be a 9!

David

“Gritty voice, great mood. I've heard Reggie Miles playing on a street corner in Seattle and he's a wonderful entertainer. On a business trip and not knowing if I'd have the chance to catch him again, I bought all three of the albums he had that day... and am glad I did. They continue to be worth listening to a year later.”

“This whole album ("War Mongerin' Man") is worth getting. F-R-E-E is a fun bit of satire on getting offers for "free" things. Reggie Miles knows how to write a song, how to sing it, and how to play it. I highly recommend his music!”

“Wonderful folk/blues reminiscent of a prior generation when music used to make a point. Reggie Miles has a great voice for this kind of music. His compositions are good; his lyrics are particularly well-crafted. I highly recommend his albums.”

I got a call from my friend Artis the Spoonman last week. He wanted me to accompany him on a video project that was being produced that featured him playing on the street at Seattle's Pike Place Market. The two camera crew and sound man caught about two hours of us.

I played a selection of some of my new bottleneck Blues songs with my homemade Nobro resophonic guitar, "That's More Like it", "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished", "That Stuff You Got", "Wall Street Bail Out Blues".... I've not had a chance yet to record some of these. So, it was nice to have them captured live on the street in this shoot.

Then we jammed a couple while I was scrubbin' on my crazy washboard/sound effects gizmo. I'm really no match for Artis. He totally rocks on spoons, knives, forks, pie servers and just about anything else he can get his hands on but I can lay down a nice rhythmic backdrop that he can work with.

I even had the chance to offer a couple of numbers with my musical saw. It's a huge contrast from what I do with my guitar, almost a polar opposite but then, I am a Gemini and we tend to have those two sides. The saw has a very feminie vocal quality to it. I liken it to getting in touch with my feminine side. ;o)

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished project. I understand that the final edit will be only about two minutes long and that it will ultimately be presented to the folks at MTV to be used for one of their segments, B-Side.

That's a lot of film on the cutting room floor. I recently spoke with the director, Virginia, while she was in the middle of editing the piece. She loved what was captured and assues me that we'll get to make use of the raw takes for our promo after the piece is sent to MTV. There should be plenty from among the almost two hours captured. This could make some great new video demos for my pages. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

"Reggie, I just followed your link and as soon as it opened up, I was knocked on my **** by your gutsy singing and slide guitar blues playing. I can't recall ever being so instantly taken by any performer/songwriter in my life. Now I know I've gotta get all your CD's. No bullshit, man, in my mind you are king of the blues." (Charles)

On Friday the 13th (3/13/09) I was invited by host Marley Walker to sing my song Wall Street Bail Out Blues on her long running Blues To Do Room program on public access SCAN TV cable channel 29/77 in Seattle. The video is the most recent version of this song that talks about our troubled economy. There was a wonderful group of folks in the studio audience that evening to support the band that would be offering a set of their music after my one song performance. Those listeners were full of energy and enjoyed my solo acoustic offering. You can check out the video at my OurStage page at the following link.

http://www.ourstage.com/fanclub/reggiemiles 

More fallout from Wall Street Journal writer Robert Tomsho's recent article, "No Dough in the Do Re Mi", featured on the cover of the WSJ on February 6th.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123387724064054525.html#identifier

This includes his article being released in the Euro branch of the Wall Street Journal on February 11th. His article will also soon be reprinted in the weekly French news magazine Courrier International. Their art department just contacted me with a request for a hi res photo to include with the reprint, scheduled to appear in their next issue.

I, of course, am both thrilled and amazed at the coverage that my song, "Wall Street Bail Out Blues", is continuing to receive via Rob's article. Who'd a thunk,  after all these years of being ignored by most of the main stream music media and denied attention by entire genres of music enthusiasts, music agents, agencies, festivals, bars, restaurants and yes, even some coffehouses, that I'd finally get more press than I could shake a stick at via this unlikely source. You can knock me over with a feather.

Stay true to your dreams!

On YouTube, my newest song, "Wall Street Bail Out Blues".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCdWEHqZJuw

I was playing on the street at the Pike Place Market in Seattle, when this video crew asked if they could film my latest song.

This rendition is rather primitive but keep in mind that I had just written it a few days before and I had only played it a handful of times.  Nevertheless, I'm very happy to have it out there for everyone to hear.

Enjoy!

The video of my song, "These Old Shoes", was posted on YouTube in early 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zhCgPY2Wyo

Enjoy!

My bottleneck slide interpretation of this old blues song, "51 Highway Blues", was posted to YouTube in early 2007.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qvNOLUTng4

This song was caught "LIVE" while I was playing an opening set at The Blue Healers' cd release party. They invited me to join them on their latest project, "Shake You Down". I played the lead lines of an old Otis Spann song, "My Love Will Never Die", with my musical saw. It all happened before a packed house at, a local bar, in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.

Enjoy!