Frankie Miller sessions

When I first started out in the music business I remember talk of a maverick singer/songwriter, a Scotsman who refused to cowtow to the Industry executives and followed his own path. Frankie Miller sang with a voice like a sack of stones. He was the epitome of the British "Blue-eyed Soul" movement.

He co-wrote with many people, including Steve Cropper, Joe Walsh & Clint Black.

19 years ago he suffered a brain hemorrhage while in New York, recording with Joe Walsh. His road to recovery has been a long one, and he is still partially disabled, but his legendary determination & stoicism have continued to fuel his efforts.

I couple of months back I was contacted by David Mackay (producer). He had found a number of Frankie's original demos, mostly on cassette tape, and he'd lifted Frankie's vocal, cleaned them up and added new instrumentation. He asked if I might be interested in playing drums on a couple of tracks. Well I jumped at the chance and, along with bassist (& good friend) Mark Prentice, we tracked two songs for the upcoming album at Manicdrums Productions.

"Sending Me Angels" is a duet which features the incredible talents of Kiki Dee, and "Long Way Home" will ultimately feature Frankie alone on vocals. The energy on this project is quite amazing. Already such artists as Bonnie Tyler, Paul Carrack, Steve Cropper & Joe Walsh have lent their talents to the project, and there's talk of many more. I'm looking forward to hearing the finished product. A voice from two decades ago on new, fresh music tracks....

Music. The universal Communicator

I’ve just returned to my hotel room from playing a gala fundraiser at the Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown Massachusetts. We played 5 songs with a number of the students singing & playing with us, some of whom are not just visually impaired but also suffering extreme learning (& communication) difficulties. The teachers explained that some of the children come to the school in a practically catatonic state. And the one thing that somehow reaches out to these students is music. It is the single most successful thing in getting them out of their shells & into a routine of communicating with the rest of the student body and the world in general.

To say this evening was an intense learning experience for me would be an enormous understatement: I found it both moving and uplifting. I’d like to thank all the staff at Perkins for their hospitality & for taking the time to both make us feel welcome and educate us on the incredible work they do.