Tim Davis

In the mid-1960s, while drumming for a group in Madison, Wisconsin, Tim Davis received an invitation from University of Wisconsin acquaintance Steve Miller. The guitarist and singer proposed that Davis join him and mutual friend James "Curly" Cooke in forming a blues ensemble in San Francisco. The Steve Miller Blues Band came together as a result in 1966. Davis remained with Miller through the lean initial years marked by scarce paying gigs, including early support slots for Chuck Berry that appeared on the Fillmore West live album and at the Monterey Pop Festival. A recording deal followed shortly, after which Davis served as drummer, percussionist, and backing vocalist on the first five albums, among them Brave New World and Number 5. During the same stretch he also contributed to Jefferson Airplane sessions, most prominently those for Crown of Creation. Later associations included work with Ben Sidran, along with the 1972 release of Davis’s own Pipe Dream, which featured appearances by Cooke and the Grateful Dead’s Donna Jean Godchaux.