David Miller (musician)
David Miller ( born March 17, 1883 on the Ohio River, Ohio; † November 1, 1953 ) was an American country music singer and musician. He is regarded as one of the first country artists who have recorded records. His nickname was The Blind Soldier.
Life
Childhood and youth
David Miller was born a few miles from the border with West Virginia and grew up on a farm. Old fiddle music and folk influenced him early in 1917, however, he was drafted as a soldier in the First World War. By poison gas he went blind at first only partially, after his discharge from the army then perfect. Amazingly, he learned to play guitar after his blindness.
Career
In the early 1920s Miller moved with his wife to Huntington, West Virginia, where he knew the banjo player Cecil " Cob " Adkins. Together they performed the first time at the radio station WSAZ. Due to the far-reaching audibility of the station Miller and Adkins quickly gained in popularity. His first recordings made always as a solo artist in 1924 with the label of the rigidity Piano Company, the Gennett Records. In addition to Fiddlin ' John Carson, Wendell Hall and Vernon Dalhart was one of the first rural musicians who made a disk recording. From 1927 to 1933 he had his own radio show, one of the first music programs ever. In the late 1920s he moved to Paramount Records, where he continued to publish plates.
In the early 1940s he and Adkins worked amplified together with the West Virginia Mockingbirds, a string band, which consisted of the brothers Ed, George, Jim, Albert and Frank Baumgardner and Belford Harvey. Later, even Miller's son David Miller, Jr. joined as guitarist of the group. In the 1940s and 1950s he appeared in Guyandotte propagated at Country & Western shows on, on which he sang with stars such as T. Texas Tyler and Patsy Cline.
David Miller died on 1 November 1953 at the age of 70 years.