Biography
Emmett Miller’s singing style left a mark on several leading country vocalists, yet his core identity stayed rooted in vaudeville, with clearer sonic ties to Al Jolson than to Merle Haggard. A white performer who worked in blackface, he championed the minstrel tradition and spent decades on the road with traveling minstrel troupes. The yodeling trill on his records proved most consequential, shaping Jimmie Rodgers, Lefty Frizzell, and Hank Williams, who picked up “Lovesick Blues” directly from one of Miller’s discs. Bob Wills instructed his first lead singer to adopt Miller’s manner, and traces of his relaxed ragtime feel later surface in Leon Redbone.
As Donald Sutherland’s character puts it when describing John Milton in Animal House, Miller “does not speak well to our generation.” The vaudeville settings of his 1920s sides now sound dated to most listeners, but the deeper obstacle is the blackface minstrel framework itself, whose stereotypes of Black life became far harder to accept after segregation ended. Miller began cutting sides for OKeh in the mid-1920s; his most significant releases for the label appeared at the decade’s close, supported by the Georgia Crackers, whose members included both Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. Although minstrel shows lost their broad appeal after 1930, Miller still recorded for Bluebird in 1936 and continued appearing in such productions before steadily smaller crowds into the early 1950s.
As Donald Sutherland’s character puts it when describing John Milton in Animal House, Miller “does not speak well to our generation.” The vaudeville settings of his 1920s sides now sound dated to most listeners, but the deeper obstacle is the blackface minstrel framework itself, whose stereotypes of Black life became far harder to accept after segregation ended. Miller began cutting sides for OKeh in the mid-1920s; his most significant releases for the label appeared at the decade’s close, supported by the Georgia Crackers, whose members included both Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. Although minstrel shows lost their broad appeal after 1930, Miller still recorded for Bluebird in 1936 and continued appearing in such productions before steadily smaller crowds into the early 1950s.
Singles
