Two Cds of concert material from 1973 and 1976 showcasing Steve Miller at his best. The first CD showcases the Joker CD, while disc two covers the Fly like an Eagle Period. Any fan of Miller will tell you that this was a period of Miller at his best, both in songwriting and muscianship. King Biscuit does a great job remastering these shows as they sound excellent. Heavy blues influences and sounds abound while playing some of Millers best tunes. Lately, Steve Miller has seemed bored on stage while going through the motions, that is not the case here. There is genuine passion coming through the shows. This is a worthy addition to anyones CD collection to show off a tight band with great songs to play. High recommendation.

...these two discs, especially the first, are The Steve Miller Band as they were meant to be heard. Live and raw. Funky and tight. The "hits" that were played to death on the radio were great songs, but mygawd, were they beaten into our musical psyche or what? Here is a band (the first disc, from DeeCee in 1973) that personified the term "jam band", but not in the put-ya-to-sleep way that some "jam bands" do. And check out the early, not-yet-fully-developed version of FLY LIKE AN EAGLE...awesome! With an expanded roster, including Norton Buffalo, on the second disc (NYC in '76), they were becoming more polished, but no less spacey and mighty, mighty interesting. ... I sat there and listened to this and just marveled. Yeah, this band was REALLY that good thirty years ago. Wow.

`The King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents The Steve Miller Band' is a two-disc set showcasing concerts recorded in Washington D.C. in 1973 and New York City in 1976. Fortuitously for the Flower Hour, and us, these concerts capture Miller at a crossroads in his recording career. Disc one features Miller promoting his breakthrough 1973 release, `The Joker', although the eclectic setlist draws extensively from three of his previous albums. Disc two presents Miller in the company of an entirely revamped band (and sound) following a two-year hiatus from the road, promoting what many consider to be his finest studio production, `Fly Like An Eagle'. The two recordings document Miller's transition from a blues-rock guitar maestro, only a fret short of Eric Clapton, to a more mature, consummate, and compelling artist.

The first disc is near-and-dear to my own heart as I caught Miller on his 1973 tour (along with the talented James Cotton Blues Band) at the ornate and intimate confines of the Masonic Temple in Detroit, Michigan. It was one of over 400 concerts Miller performed in a two-year time span. I wasn't well versed in Miller's catalog at the time, but my recollections of the concert are bore out by the recording tendered here. Miller starts out with a flurry of catchy rock tunes, including 1969's `Space Cowboy', 1968's `Living In the USA', and 1970's politically-minded `Jackson-Kent Blues', which carries itself aurally as a precursor for his 1976 hit, `Rock'N Me'. While most of the tracks are penned by Miller (including `Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma', `Fly Like An Eagle', and `My Dark Hour'), there is a run of covers in `Mary Lou', `Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash' and even `Gangster Of Love', which Miller claimed as a personal moniker. It's a fast-moving, intense rock show that unexplainably loses its fury and bows out with two fairly restrained blues numbers, `Evil' and a cover of Duke Ellington's `Blues With a Feelin', and the closer, a two-minute adios curiously featuring the band introductions, `So Long Blues' (which, ironically, Miller introduces as `Welcome'). Quite oxymoronic. Only `Lovin' Cup', from `The Joker', returns us to the riveting rock concert we started out with. The most interesting moments turn on the raw, guitar-based, formative version of `Fly Like An Eagle' Miller possessed in 1973. While the more evolved, keyboard-based version offered on disc two is certainly more familiar, its familiarity renders it the more superfluous of the two tracks. Both are thoroughly enjoyable, and are altogether compelling as a pair.

Disc two reveals a more accomplished and polished Steve Miller Band, this despite presenting only two of his seven Top-40 recordings, `Fly Like An Eagle' (#2 in January of 1977) and `The Joker' (#1 in November of 1973). There is an abundance of readily recognizable tunes, however, as Miller had become a staple for album-oriented FM radio in the 1970's. Among those tunes would be three tracks from `Fly Like An Eagle', `Wild Mountain Honey', `Mercury Blues', and `The Window'. He reaches all the way back to his first album for 1968's `Baby's Callin' Me Home', his second album for 1968's `Song For Our Ancestors', his third disc for 1969's `Seasons', his fifth album for 1970's `Going To the Country' and `Going To Mexico', and his seventh album for 1972's `Nothin' Lasts'. If you don't recognize these excellent compositions from their titles, you'll probably be surprised at how well acquainted you are with many of them. A respectable cover of Robert Johnson's oft-recorded `Come On In My Kitchen' completes the collection. Despite the fact that Miller rarely wrote a song without a fantastic guitar hook, those chops are much less pronounced on disc two as Miller had diversified his sound in the mid-1970's. By 1976, Miller's concerts ran the gamut from anthemic psychedelia (`Fly Like An Eagle'), to whispy ballads (`Wild Mountain Honey'), to crunchy blues-rock (`Mercury Blues'), and even to a reggae influenced (it was 1976 after all...) 'The Joker'.

I've been impressed with every `King Biscuit' disc I've had the pleasure to own, and this two-disc set is no exception. The recordings are brisk, with the caveat that a few of the softer passages reveal distracting tape hiss. Despite this, all of the musicians are well represented, Miller's vocals are strong, and there is a minimum of intrusive crowd noise. A well-constructed booklet is included with extensive notes from Miller himself, personal kudos' from Paul McCartney and Les Paul, and copious photographs of Miller and his band mates. The only criticism of the Biscuits' production is their failure to publish the running times for individual songs, despite listing them in three separate places. Nevertheless, `The King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents The Steve Miller Band' is a great way for casual fans like myself to collect a wealth of Miller's best work, and stands as an essential commodity for Miller's more devoted fans.

A few years back I owned and then sold The Best Of The Steve Miller Band not being impressed beyond a few songs on the album. I was browsing the used CD section and came across this CD deciding to give it a chance. I had absolutely no idea how cool Steve Miller really was until I head this album. There is an early version of "Fly Like and Eagle" on Disc 1 that is 11 mins long and has to be one of my all time favorite songs even though I play disc 2 more with different version of "The Joker" and a awesome version of "Mountain Honey".

I've always enjoyed Steve Miller's band and music, I've never heard this live compilation album from the king biscuit flower hour before. Decent recording for a live event and he sounds awesome in the recordings. Very happy I picked this up.