About Steve Miller Country

 Most people in Meigs County, Tennessee know Steve Miller as a trusted community banker, cattle farmer and all around respected leader in the town.

 

When Steve bought his first angus cow in the 1960s as a high school FFA project, he never could have predicted the winding trails that his life has taken since that first step.

 

Pursuing animal husbandry for his degree at Tennessee Tech, Steve found himself with a job opportunity in agricultural lending, and thus began his 40-plus-year celebrated career in banking.

 

Steve’s accolades as Honorable Leader in Banking Excellence from the Tennessee Bankers Association is a credit to his traditional Tennessee values.

 

“I would have never thought I’d end up in banking, but I took that first job, and you know, I was good at it.  I liked helping people,” said Steve.

 

The community supported Steve’s banks because his banks supported them, and together they flourished in five Southeast Tennessee counties.

 

As is the case with many great businessmen, Steve had an artistic side as well to complement and even feed the forward progression and innovations seen in his community banking business modeling.

 

Steve’s passion since boyhood was music.  Steeped in the gospel of the Red Book Hymnal, his heart and soul were poured out in his booming, baritone voice in the church choir every Sunday.

 

Steve’s lifelong sweetheart and wife Kathy shares the love of singing with him and the rest of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren enjoy music as well.

 

As fate and timing would have it, Steve’s musical aspirations were fired up by the success of Chris Hennessee, a young man who practically grew up at the Miller home as a neighbor and friend of the family children.

 

Chis had moved to Nashville to try his hand at the music business, and landed multiple recording offers and songs licensed in the hit international television drama “Nashville” within a short time.

 

Hennessee began encouraging Steve to record some of his own songs, and the pair teamed up with some of Chris’s touring buddies from the Jamey Johnson band to complete a debut EP titled “Late Start New Beginnings.”

 

The album was released in 2016, and Steve was thrilled with that accomplishment crossed off his bucket list.

 

But now he had the music in his system.

 

Having always played in bands here and there as a young man, Steve had focused all his time on building his community banks and farm as a sound business decision for his family.

 

Now in retirement, Steve’s music would provide a release for his creative energies and help him to tell his stories.

 

Having always been compared to Johnny Cash both in stature and style, Steve’s stage presence became more frequent as friends and neighbors learned of his new musical interest.

 

Armed with a new recording and lots of positive feedback, Steve started scratching his head as the business side of his creativity started flowing.

 

Could a 70-year-old guy really have a shot of doing something with his music?

 

Apparently, it might not be such a crazy idea after all.

 

Introduced through a mutual acquaintance, Steve began working with celebrated Nashville songwriter Amanda Colleen Williams for new material to record.

 

“We started out just listening to my stuff, but pretty soon, we were off to the races writing new material.  Amanda has a way of capturing my stories and then seemingly effortlessly, putting them to music.  She’s a musical genius,” Miller laughs.

 

Steve and Williams penned dozens of songs, all over the phone during the year long covid delay.

 

“It was a delay for everybody but Steve Miller!” said Amanda, who consults with the Miller family about their musical creative endeavors.

 

The result was Steve’s debut full length album “Mercedes Blues Man” recorded once again with producer Chris Hennessee and Cody Leppo at his studio, released independently in 2021.

 

Now Steve Miller Country is at it again with a brand new album in 2022 called “God’s Peaceful Waters.”

 

“Of all the projects I’ve worked on with Steve this is my favorite, not only because of the songs, but the sincerity of where the songs come from. He and I both grew up on these songs and the songwriting is a reflection of the foundation the old hymns helped build,”  said producer Chris Hennessee.

 

Enjoy the album of country gospel classic songs and new originals in the style of Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley, like the tunes Steve grew up on in church and at home in East Tennessee.

 

The album can be ordered now as CD format, streamed and downloaded on all major music streaming services including Amazon Music, Spotify and Pandora.