SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
John R. Miller has spent much of the past 20 years on the road - fronting bands, as a backup player in bars, theaters, sharing the stage with some of Americana's biggest names, playing everything from old-time string music to old-country straight-down-the-pike rock and roll.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T BET ON ME")
JOHN R MILLER: (Singing) Making breakfast in yesterday's kitchen. Ain't sleeping tomorrow's bed. Yeah, I know that the world ain't fair, but some things I do not abide. Nothing good comes free.
SIMON: That's "Don't Bet On Me," lead single from John R. Miller's new album, "The Great Unknowing."
And John R. Miller joins us in our studios here at NPR. Thanks so much for being with us.
MILLER: Thank you for having me.
SIMON: The Newport Festivals Foundation is honoring you this year with the John Prine Songwriter Fellowship. How's that feel?
MILLER: Obviously, it's a huge honor to be awarded something like that. I've been a fan and follower of Oh Boy Records and John Prine most of my life at this point.
SIMON: What's an opportunity like that mean to you at this point in your career?
MILLER: For most of this thing, I never really considered it a career - more of, like, a lifestyle choice, you know?
SIMON: More a lifestyle choice than a career.
MILLER: Well, I was very moved by music early on. And I wanted to start bands pretty much as soon as I picked up a guitar, around 14 or 15. But I didn't really think it was possible to make the kind of living that you might need to have housing or what have you, so I never really considered that an option. But I knew that I could drive a van, and I saw other bands doing it. It seemed like something I could do.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOLLBOOTH")
MILLER: (Singing) Turnpike plaza's got me down again. Cold fluorescence, toilets overflowing...
SIMON: There are people that make...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOLLBOOTH")
MILLER: (Singing) ...Under the big silver sky.
SIMON: ...Gobs of money in the music business. You never had your sights set on that?
MILLER: No. I always felt like that would be more of a limiting thing. If the goal was, you know, making a bunch of money or being famous or what have you - would be a major distraction from what I really wanted to do, which was just play songs and write songs and collaborate with other musicians. So that's been the most aspirational thing for me, is just to maintain a lifestyle that could support the act of making more stuff.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FAR FROM THE STATION")
MILLER: (Singing) I feel better in the stillness. I can hear the unheard song. You're the only thing I've been doing wrong.
SIMON: This album has a few covers also. I want to ask you about Dire Straits' "Walk Of Life." The original's considered kind of a - you know, obviously classic rock, known for being upbeat. But let's - your version's kind of stripped down.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WALK OF LIFE")
MILLER: (Singing) He got the action. He got the motion. Yeah, the boy can play. Dedication, devotion, turning all the nighttime into the day. He did the song...
SIMON: What made you decide to take a different approach?
MILLER: Yeah. That was the last song that we did on the record. And in the studio - you know, we were at The Church Studio, home of Shelter Records. JJ Cale lived on the property, and Mark Knopfler, you know, was a very on-record JJ Cale fan. And as we were doing the song, we kept trying to sort of chase down a slower tempo.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WALK OF LIFE")
MILLER: (Singing) Johnny, going to tell you a story. Hand me down my walking shoes. Here comes Johnny with the power and the glory, backbeat, the talking blues.
MILLER: It wasn't really intentional to end up where we ended up specifically. It just - that was - once we got there, we felt really good.
SIMON: I understand you're going to play "Steering Wheel Drums" for us.
MILLER: Yeah. This is a song from the new record. Kind of (playing guitar) - kind of ended up being a set of vignettes about some friends of mine from back home, West Virginia. But (playing guitar) - I'll give it a shot here.
(Singing) Steering wheel drums in a green Astro, side-pocket can of beer from a Stop-N-Go. And I was hoping you would come around, hoping you would come around. Found some work, made it three days. I wasn't cut out for it anyway. And I was hoping you'd be at the bar, hoping you'd be at the bar. Nervous wrecks all sound the same, like steering wheel drums. Like steering wheel drums. Like steering wheel drums down the red highway.
SIMON: That's quite a lyric - nervous wrecks all sound the same, like steering wheel drums. What's behind those words?
MILLER: Yeah. I can be pretty fidgety behind the wheel (laughter). I don't really know where that came from, particularly. But it seems like something that a lot of us do in traffic, you know? Driving for long periods of time can start to wear on your nervous system a little bit.
(Singing) Stand off to the side, karaoke Bonnie and Clyde. Nervous wrecks all sound the same, like steering wheel drums. Like steering wheel drums. Like steering wheel drums in the pouring rain.
SIMON: And you spend a lot of time on the road - don't you? - behind the steering wheel.
MILLER: Yeah. Yeah. I've been through a lot of vans.
(Singing) Waiting for the sun to fall, thinking about the time on 79. The lugs didn't hold, and the wheel went flying. But I miss you most of all. I waited for you to call. Nervous wrecks all sound the same, like steering wheel drums. Like steering wheel drums.
SIMON: When you travel so much, is it hard to have a place you call home - a center of gravity?
MILLER: I don't know where I feel grounded or how to feel grounded in a place 'cause I never really stop moving. It feels like you're an astronaut sometimes. The transmissions come in here and there from home or various places, but it feels pretty floaty sometimes.
SIMON: John R. Miller. His new album, "The Great Unknowing," is out now. Thanks so much for stopping by - sharing your music with us.
MILLER: Thanks very much for having me in.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A WORLD AWAY")
MILLER: (Singing) Puzzle pieces made of time. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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