The Steve Miller Band - Let Your Hair Down (2011)

Following last year’s No. one blues album, “Bingo!,” recently nominated as blues rock album of the year by the Blues Foundation, the Steve Miller Band follows that success with another new album, “Let Your Hair Down,” due April 19 from Space Cowboy/LoudandProud/Roadrunner Records.
“Let Your Hair Down” features the last recordings by harmonica virtuoso Norton Buffalo, Miller’s “partner in harmony” for thirty-three years. Noted Pink Floyd album cover artist Storm Thorgerson, who also did the wonderfully whimsical cover to “Bingo!,” returns to “Let Your Hair Down” with one of the great album covers of his career. Miller, whose new album shines with some of the finest guitar playing he has ever recorded, will make a special appearance with jazz guitar greats Jim Hall, Bucky Pizzarelli and Howard Alden on February 12 in a concert celebrating the opening of the exhibit, “Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen From Italy To New York,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Three custom-made archtop guitars by luthier James D’Aquisto from Miller’s personal collection are included in the exhibit.
Prior to the release of “Let Your Hair Down,” the Steve Miller Band will perform material from the album at a gala concert opening the new multi-million dollar performance facility built for the long-running music TV series, “Austin City Limits,” on February 24. Two days later, the band will tape the first show of the coming season in the new theater, while the streets outside are closed off and a huge party and free concert takes place.
To launch the release of “Let Your Hair Down” in high style, Miller also plans a series of theater and small arena dates in mid-April through the South and East Coast with Gregg Allman, whose new solo album, “Low Country Blues,” is one of the best-received releases of his career, a combination that could produce some rip-roaring jam sessions onstage.
The new album caps one of the busiest years of Miller’s accomplished career. In addition to the release last year of the acclaimed first new Steve Miller Band album in seventeen years (“cause for celebration,” said The Huffington Post), Miller not only led a sold out tour across the United States and Canada, but returned to Europe for the first time in more than twenty-five years for a triumphant round of dates culminating in a sold out Royal Albert Hall concert in London, filmed for DVD release.
One of rock music’s all-time greats, the Steve Miller Band has sold more than 30 million records in a career spanning more than 40 years. His trademark blues-rock sound made him one of the key artists in classic rock radio. He is the Gangster of Love. Some people call him Maurice, the Midnight Toker or the Space Cowboy. And, as “Let Your Hair Down” so aptly demonstrates, Stevie “Guitar” Miller still speaks in the pompitus of love. (top)