Emmett Miller: An Obscure Minstrel Yodeler Who Changed Music Forever

By Jack Norton and Kitty Norton

One of the strangest, most obscure, and intriguing stories from the last century of American music is that of Emmett Miller. He helped define the popular music of the last 75 years, and for the most part, today he is all but forgotten. Emmett Miller left many legacies which influenced the American musical landscape for generations. Certainly his singing style - the odd nasal pitch tone, along with the breaking of lines and bars in a song to a high yodel-like yelp - has been imitated by scores of singers since Miller first waxed his signature style to record in 1924. Jimmie Rodgers, Gene Autry, Lefty Fritzell, the Rhythm Wreckers, Bob Wills, Woody Guthrie, Howlin' Wolf, Leon Redbone and Bob Dylan all have been influenced by Miller's one-of-a-kind vocal abilities. Of equal importance was Miller's visionary fusion of blues and jazz, country and swing, black and white, comedy and crooning.

Whether he knew what he was doing at the time or not, Miller almost single-handedly tore down the strict boundaries of musical ideas of the era. Here was a young, white, Christian man from the south, singing hot-jazz and black music in the north. Performing as a blackface with some of the most influential jazz musicians of all time (Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, Eddie Lang, Jack Teagarden, and more). He created an entirely new style of country: pop. Country which swung. Country that was equally parts white and black, urban and rural. Country that was slurred through whiskey, girls, the road, and came out as the earliest forms of beatnik jive. Listening to Miller's music today, one can hear the startling sound of a man perfectly in sync with the present: he's influenced by the past, while he anticipated what was coming just around the bend. For fans of music history, musicology, Americana, country music, hillbilly, minstrelsy and vaudeville.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781458340450

Jack Norton

Hi, I’m Jack Norton. I am an Emmy Award winning American writer currently wandering around Europe. I love travel, reading, smoking lots of weed, collecting old records, eating raw vegan food, practicing yoga and obsessing over other people’s dogs and cats. I am married to my high school sweetheart Kitty.I am fiercely independent and always have been. I self-released my first album when I was just a kid back in 1997 and I self-published my first book way back in 2001. That was long before the days of indie authors and ebooks! Over the years, Kitty and I have created record labels, booking agencies, film and television production companies, publishing houses and more.Currently my focus is as a writer and publisher - authoring books across many genres from nonfiction (music business, motivation, musicology) to fiction (thrillers, steamy romance and pulps), poetry and memoirs. I also have a daily blog and host several podcasts.When I was a kid, Tiny Tim (the guy that sang “Tip-Toe Through The Tulips”) was my babysitter and neighbor. He taught me how to play the ukulele! When I was in elementary school I was a totally weirdo (I guess things never really change). I was obsessed with writing and music history. I started trading correspondence with authors Hubert Selby, Jr. and Nick Tosches. I also befriended musicians Tom Waits and Leon Redbone while I was still in middle school. I attended an Arts High School which is where I met my soulmate Kitty. Together we failed our way through high school and I graduated earning the lowest possible grade...while still being allowed to get a diploma. I remember the principal telling us that we would never have a career in the arts and that I specifically was a total failure as a creative artist and as a human being.Two decades have since passed and I have made my living solely as a professional working artist. In fact, I have no resume or job history - other than pursuing my own schemes and dreams over the years!Along the way, I taught myself how to be a filmmaker and ended up getting into the world of corporate video production. My clients included: the Pentagon (US Department of Defense), MTV, Disney Channel, Interscope, Island-Def Jam, KidzBop, Sony, Whole Foods and even Justin Bieber. I also directed dozens of music videos, short films and a few features as well. My 2015 feature length documentary film Jug Band Hokum included appearances by humorist Garrison Keillor, bluesman Charlie Parr and Grammy winning rap legends Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. The film had a successful run at major film festivals and independent cinemas around the world. And our entire production budget was $600.I love working through limitations and finding creative ways of self-producing creative content!Kitty and I co-created and self-financed a kids television show that ended up earning six regional Emmy Award nominations and was broadcast on over 150 PBS member stations nationwide and in 175 countries on the AFN Family Channel on Trinity Broadcasting Network. We spent just under ten thousand dollars to make the entire series. At the time, one reviewer called it “Barney meets the Black Eyed Peas”, because we were doing electro hip-hop music for preschoolers. LOL.Speaking of film stuff, I am a horrible actor but somehow I have appeared in a few films, including roles opposite Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern in Wilson (2016) and an unfortunate stint as a prisoner in the Tom Six cult horror film The Human Centipede III: Final Sequence (2015). In 2017, we wrote and performed four original songs for the Oscar nominated Willem Dafoe film The Florida Project (A24) which was made by director Sean Baker (Tangerine). The Florida Project premiered at the 49th edition of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight as part of the Cannes Film Festival. Pretty wild stuff.I no longer performing live, however over the years I have opened for: Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Dave Van Ronk, Leon Redbone and the Squirrel Nut Zippers (to name a few). A few years ago, Kitty and I were given the incredible opportunity to perform in 19 countries for the US Pentagon, where we entertained military families in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. We’ve also performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC and at the legendary Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee. We actually lived in Nashville for a while and really loved our time in Music City!In late 2019, we released Two Stalkers One Goal, a memoir co-written with Kitty. It is an inspiring book offering hope and healing for victims of stalking, cyberstalking, narcissistic abuse, gossip and bullying. We are survivors of a story so crazy that, well, you just have to read the book! ;)This is a great time to be a creative artist and independent creator. The makers movement has only just begun and I couldn’t be more grateful to be along for the wild ride through the golden age of creative content.Connect with me at:http://www.jackandkitty.comhttp://www.instagram.com/mrjacknortonhttp://www.twitter.com/mrjacknorton

Book preview

Emmett Miller

EMMETT MILLER

AN OBSCURE MINSTREL YODELER WHO CHANGED MUSIC FOREVER

JACK NORTON

Norton Family Media

CONTENTS

A Note From The Author

Prologue: Doing The Hag

Lost World: The Emmett Miller Saga

Epilogue: Two Drifters Off To See The World

Emmett Miller: Discography

Works Cited

Thanks

About the Author

Disclaimer

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

Sadly today, Emmett Miller remains a minor footnote in country music history... 

Did you hear the one about Hank Williams stealing Lovesick Blues from an old minstrel man and claiming at his own? In fact, when Hank was selling out the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville, a guy named Emmett was two blocks away in a shitty little dive bar called Skull's in a rough part of town called Printer's Alley?

And that's where the conversation usually ends. But there is so much more. I have spent a lifetime devoted to pursuing whatever information I can find on this old minstrel man. I'd like to share with you all that I have found so far. The majority of this book was printed in 2002 by a small publisher that has long since been out of business (newsflash – you don't get rich publishing short works about long dead blackface yodelers written by inexperienced fifteen-year-old authors). I have since expanded this edition, edited some of the more painful sections (I was only fifteen when the first edition was printed!) and hopefully have increased the overall value of Lost World: The Emmett Miller Saga a bit. There is still so much research to be done. I forge on. Perhaps in another twenty years I shall be able to expand this work, but for now, I remain your dedicated author presenting you all that I know... 

PROLOGUE: DOING THE HAG

My buddy