Lester Miller
This is Mike pinch-hitting for Michelle.
My mother’s father is Lester Miller. When I was growing up in PA, he was part of a local country band. My father Fred Beach, and uncle Carl Miller were also in the same band. Carl played the drums and eventually got me started doing the same. My dad played the base guitar. Pap Miller was versatile. He could play pretty much anything he picked up. In the band he was primarily the mandolin player, but he also did some songs on the harmonica. Of all the family, I was the only one who showed any interest in harmonica. I had several of my own starting in middle-school. When Pap Miller died, Grammy Miller gave me all his harmonica stuff. It all came in a case with Pap’s nickname on the outside… ‘Shorty’. It was fitting. The case was full of several dozen harmonicas of varying musical keys. He even left a homemade belt in the case with little pockets in it for carrying many harmonicas on stage with him. Each pocket holds one ‘harp’. I still tinker with playing a little from time to time, but not as much as he did.
While getting things ready to move from VA to GA, I went through the case and found a number of documents, but the most intriguing are a number of song lists with associated key selections. My guess is when the key is not specifically listed it's probably 'C'. This makes up a sort of library of songs Pap played with the band. It might be a fun project for one of you more musically inclined in the family to find the artists and songs listed just to see what they had in their repertoire. Here are the lists:
My mother’s father is Lester Miller. When I was growing up in PA, he was part of a local country band. My father Fred Beach, and uncle Carl Miller were also in the same band. Carl played the drums and eventually got me started doing the same. My dad played the base guitar. Pap Miller was versatile. He could play pretty much anything he picked up. In the band he was primarily the mandolin player, but he also did some songs on the harmonica. Of all the family, I was the only one who showed any interest in harmonica. I had several of my own starting in middle-school. When Pap Miller died, Grammy Miller gave me all his harmonica stuff. It all came in a case with Pap’s nickname on the outside… ‘Shorty’. It was fitting. The case was full of several dozen harmonicas of varying musical keys. He even left a homemade belt in the case with little pockets in it for carrying many harmonicas on stage with him. Each pocket holds one ‘harp’. I still tinker with playing a little from time to time, but not as much as he did.
While getting things ready to move from VA to GA, I went through the case and found a number of documents, but the most intriguing are a number of song lists with associated key selections. My guess is when the key is not specifically listed it's probably 'C'. This makes up a sort of library of songs Pap played with the band. It might be a fun project for one of you more musically inclined in the family to find the artists and songs listed just to see what they had in their repertoire. Here are the lists:
RSS Feed