Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The Steve Miller Band To Tour In Support of New Album 'Bingo!'


Legendary rock icon Steve Miller Band will kick off a highly anticipated North American tour May 21st in Las Vegas in a new show designed by acclaimed Broadway director Rob Roth. The tour will support his new album BINGO!, which lands in stores June 15th on Miller’s Space Cowboy Records in partnership with Roadrunner/Loud & Proud Records. Having sold more than 30 million records, The Steve Miller Band's trademark sound is a mainstay of rock radio. His yearly summer tour extravaganza has become an anticipated annual event for millions of rock fans.



Co-produced by Miller and engineer Andy Johns (Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix), BINGO! is the first of two albums recorded at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch. The sessions introduced new band member Sonny Charles a veteran vocalist of the Checkmates who will also be on the road this summer with Miller. These were the final sessions by harmonica player and vocalist Norton Buffalo, Miller’s “partner in harmony” for 33 years, who died of cancer in October 2009.



While the tour will feature his classic rock anthems “Fly Like an Eagle,” “The Joker,” “Rock ‘n Me,” “Take the Money and Run,” and “Abracadabra,” among others, Miller will also perform selected tracks from BINGO! which echoes his early days on the Chicago scene. On Bingo! Miller has spiced some of the tracks with the Latin percussion battery of conga player Michael Carabello, founding member of Santana, and timbales ace Adrian Areas, son of Carabello’s partner from the original group, Jose “Chepito” Areas. Guitarist Joe Satriani traded solos on ‘Rock Me Baby’ and ‘Sweet Soul Vibe’ with Miller, whose brilliant guitar playing was a major feature of the sessions.



BINGO! will be released in 2 formats: a 10-track digipack CD and a special edition with 4 bonus tracks and expanded artwork. The album’s artwork is a creation of legendary Storm Thorgerson whose album packages for Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd are the gold standard in artistic design. The album is a fully realized mature work of a master craftsman, in a sense, “BINGO!” is the album Steve Miller has been waiting all his life to make.



The Steve Miller Band is a centerpiece attraction of the summer rock concert season playing sixty or more shows every year. He is the Gangster of Love. Some people call him Maurice, the Midnight Toker or the Space Cowboy. And with BINGO!, a masterpiece album by one of the greats, Steve Miller shows he still speaks of the pompitus of love. Get a sneak peak of what's in store by listening to "Hey Yeah" from Bingo! right here, and see all upcoming tour dates below!