Daniel Dye and the Miller Road Band

Some of the most notable and influential Singer/Songwriters of our time are also the best storytellers. Woody Guthrie set the stage for many Songwriters penning classics like “Pretty Boy Floyd” as well as one of my favorites called “Talkin’ Dust Bowl Blues” about the famous drought of the 1930’s. Guthrie’s influence on American Folk music is evident when you talk about of my generation’s best like Bob Dylan, Doc Watson, and Steve Earle. The Americana Roots movement has seen a rebirth in the past several years and the Buckeye state is leading the way with some talent of our own like Ohio native Daniel Dye.

Dye is a master storyteller, weaving tales of his time on the road and bringing them to life. Dye has spent a good part of his adult life on the road traveling through Europe, Asia, and most recently Turkey and Germany. When he’s not on the road Dye is a devoted family man, that devotion and dedication to family is also evident in his writings. His debut CD Daniel Dye featuring The Miller Road Band was to me an instant classic with songs like “The Devil’s Drink”, “Ohio”, and “Saints and Sinners” to name a few. Dye’s family collaborations with the Miller Road Band that consist of nephews Andrew Miller (Vocals, Banjo, Viola, Drums, Glockenspiel, Melodica), Thomas Miller (Cello, Ukelele) and niece Carrie Miller (Vocals, Violin) have been nothing short of brilliant.

Back in the spring of this year Daniel Dye and the Miller Road band released their much anticipated new album called “Blinded Again”. The 10 song CD once again delivers a balance of eclectic melodies and vocal harmonies that will have you singing along before you know it. The CD opens with the declaration “Can’t Stop This Love”, a beautiful tune highlighting the talents of this amazing family of musicians. The next song “Lord Have Mercy” is a haunting tune featuring Dye on vocals and reflects a spiritual reckoning of sorts that is entwined throughout the CD. The title track echoes that sentiment with a traditional gospel/folk song much like the ones I sang in the church pews as a young kid. On this tune Daniel and the band are accompanied by his sisters Jenny Miller and Sarah Kelly.

But don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a gospel album but a truthful and poignant look at life’s struggles and joys. Dye shares an intimate moment with us on the song called “Eliza’s Song” written for his daughter featuring Daniel’s Sister Amanda Blanton on Background Vocals. The song proclaims “The world outside is movin’ fast, but for us it’s movin’ slow and time around is flyin’ past, but now we wouldn’t know.” One of my favorite tracks on the CD is “Hard Cider” and highlights the lovely and talented Carrie Miller on Violin as well as Dye’s Sister Sarah Kelly on vocals. The song “Those Devil’s” underscore the amazing talent of this family; the emotional Melodica intro by Andrew Miller followed by Dye’s speedy acoustic riff draws you quickly into this fast paced gem doesn’t let you go.

Daniel Dye and The Miller Road Band’s “Blinded Again” takes you on a musical journey of self reflection and it’s a journey you’ll want to take over and over again. You can hear many of these tunes performed live at Dye’s annual musical celebration called the Madden Road Music Festival in Mutual, OH Saturday, August 16 beginning at noon. This year the festival moves from the Madden Road Music Hall to a farm in Mutual and is expected to be bigger than ever. The one day festival always brings in great talent and this year is no exception. The line-up includes The Great Wide Open, The Kurtz Family, My Brother's Keeper, The Florals, and of course Daniel Dye and the Miller Road Band. You can find more information about Daniel Dye and The Miller Road Band CD’s and the Madden Road Music Festival at the links below. - Buckeye Music Magazine

One of the heads of the Columbus Songwriters’ Association recently had high praise to give Blinded Again, saying it was both an incredibly solid album as well as “relevant.” I’m here to offer my agreement and endorsement of this young folk band with some bluegrass and gospel tendencies.

The band’s namesake, Daniel Dye, sings with a slight swagger that is reminiscent of a Matt Berninger gone country character. Yes, I just implied that the lead singer of The National could succeed in a country band. Thankfully, Blinded Again avoids the cheesy mainstream country that Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, and Keith Urban have brought to the masses. What we have here is thoroughly organic and full of soul.

The title track, with its catchy, traditional sounding melody unashamedly proclaims the singer’s imperfections as he repeats a plea for salvation in the chorus. The soft banjo and female harmonies from Daniel’s sister Sarah Kelly really drive home the sound, making “Blinded Again” a good tune for using as an introduction to the band.

While most of the time Dye’s voice takes the forefront, don’t be deceived. This project is definitely a BAND. Not a person with some nice sounding background noise. “Hard Cider” exemplifies the “band” aspect of the music the best of any track on the record. I knew that just from the first ten seconds of the song where the violin roars in (a weird way to describe it maybe) assertively. The accordion and violin overlaying one another with some rather tasty acoustic guitar work exemplify the band’s prowess as well in “Those Devils,” which is solid song all around – not just good for the technical work behind the instrument playing. The song ends in a climax that’s unlike anything I’ve heard in folk music thus far.

Ultimately, the band has the chops to stand against some of their much larger counterparts in the industry. Along the way though, the band will proceed in humility and make sure you know exactly Whom they are leaning on for support and sustainment. - I Am Tuned UP

When Daniel Dye is not lecturing in English for the Education and Human Ecology Department at Ohio State, he fronts a folk outfit with the Miller Road Band.
Dye is a self-trained singer-songwriter and guitarist, who collaborated with his younger relatives after a long trip abroad.
“I’ve been doing music alone for years,” Dye said. “I lived in Europe and came back about three years ago or so and I found out my nephews and nieces were amazing classical musicians and had been training while I was gone.”
The Miller Road Band consists of Dye, two of his nephews, Andrew and Thomas Miller, and his niece, Carrie Miller.
Dye and the Millers played at farmer’s markets “just for fun” in their beginning, but in 2010 they started taking music seriously, Dye said. Toward the end of the same year Dye released his first album, “Daniel Dye featuring the Miller Road Band.”
The Millers largely provide a string section to Dye’s music and were surrounded by music starting at a young age, said Andrew Miller, a third-year in economics as well as multi-instrumentalist for the band. The Millers’ father holds a degree in music education, and their mother teaches piano lessons as well as music classes at an elementary school.
“All growing up we took piano lessons and eventually started doing strings. That’s sort of our main thing,” Andrew Miller said. Andrew Miller plays viola in Ohio State’s Community Orchestra, but with the Miller Road Band, he plays more instruments including guitar, banjo, mandolin, melodica and cajón. Carrie Miller is a violinist, and Thomas Miller is a cellist.
The band is in the process of mixing its newest album, which is slated to release sometime in the summer or fall of 2013.
Dye said his songwriting process with the Miller Road Band has developed since the release of the first album.
“Probably the biggest difference is that we’re better musicians,” Dye said. “The band is tighter, we know how to grow a song more. When I write a song, I’ll have three verses and a chorus and now we’re able to actually develop the song better.”
Andrew Miller said the songs on the first album were completed in a few takes, as opposed to the songs on the new album which sound “more produced, polished.” The increased production value should add to the sound, he said.
Dye writes the melody and the lyrics, and the Millers contribute additional melody lines to the songs.
“I come up with the original melody and lyrics, and a lot of the parts that they add they work out on their own,” Dye said. “Sometimes it’s together. Sometimes I’ll just play through a song, and literally just start jamming and see what sounds good and what doesn’t.”
The Millers embellish Dye’s melodies with their expertise as string players and provide thicker instrumentation.
“There’s a lot of arranging that goes on after (Daniel) writes a song. We come up with counter-melodies or instrumental melodies, as well as harmonies,” Andrew Miller said. “While the song is considered written, the song is still pretty shaped and is still growing by our process as we all work together on it.”
A groundbreaking song for Dye and the Miller Road Band was “Hard Cider,” a song that won the band a spot on CD102.5’s Local Band Showcase on March 22, although the band ultimately lost the contest.
The Millers’ part in the song supports the front-and-center act: a duet between Dye and a guest vocalist, Dye’s sister Sarah Kelly.
Kelly does not appear in many of the songs with Dye and the Millers, but enjoys her time performing with the group nonetheless, Kelly said.
Kelly said she finds playing music and singing with a family makes the performance much easier.
“What I think makes (Dye and the Miller Road Band) unique besides Daniel’s songwriting … is the family connection,” Kelly said. “With family, it’s so easy to sing together, it’s just really natural to harmonize, which is one thing I love about singing with them.”
Daniel Dye and the Miller Road Band is scheduled to perform a free show at Kafe Kerouac, 2250 N. High St., on April 12 at 9 p.m. Donations will be accepted. - The Lantern-The Ohio State University

By Melissa Dabe
Contributing Writer
MUTUAL — The second annual Madden Road Music Fest will be held Saturday in the old town hall in Mutual, six miles east of Urbana. It will feature 10 live bands on both indoor and outdoor stages.
“The music ranges from bluegrass, blues and rock. There’s a nice variety,” said Daniel Dye, organizer of the event.
“They are all Ohio bands, except for Brad Byrd, who is from Massachusets,” said Dye. “There is a growing interest in roots music”, says Dye, “and we have so much talent in central Ohio. I thought it would be a great idea to feature that through a festival.
“Some of the bands we have include the bluegrass band Black Diamond; folk and blues musician Todd the Fox; blues, rock and funk band Trey Stone; funk and new-wave band William the Accountant; and the award-winning indie rocker Brad Byrd. My band, Daniel Dye and The Miller Road Band play folk, Americana and bluegrass. We are in the process of recording a second album to be released in early 2013.”
Proceeds from the event go to restoring the old Town Hall. “This got started because my mom has an antique store on the first floor, and we went upstairs and it’s beautiful up there. So we got this idea to make it a music hall,” said Dye. “The second floor has huge windows, which give it lots of natural lighting. There’s exposed brick, and, when we cleaned it, it looks like a downtown New York apartment. We found wood floors and discovered it was once a gymnasium. And we found an old chalkboard that led us to find out that it was also an old school house. We just think it has lots of character and we want to fix it up and make it a nice place for the community.”
Dye has big plans for the building. “Last year we ran electricity in the building. Now we want to paint and shellac the walls, and provide better lighting. Then we have to dig a well and put in plumbing and a kitchen,” he said.
The grounds will open at 2 p.m. Madden Road Family Homecooked Food will offer hot dogs, pizza, grilled cheese and beverages. Also planned is a jam session at 2 p.m. for anyone who wants to participate.
Discount tickets can be purchased in advance on the website. Tickets are also available at the door. - Springfield News-Sun

Every Monday night at 8pm on Buckeye Music Magazine Radio I have the privilege of hosting our CD Spotlight. We highlight the best independent artist from around the country many of whom are right here in the Buckeye State. A few weeks ago I had the honor of featuring Daniel Dye and the Miller Road Band from Springfield, OH. The CD was one of the first we received here at BMM Radio so the spotlight show was well over due. A couple weeks later we were invited by Daniel to the Madden Road Music Hall in Mutual, OH. The venue is an old two room school house built in the late 1800’s where Daniel’s mother has her antique shop and up stairs Daniel has transformed an old gymnasium into one of the most intimate settings for live music in the state of Ohio. The huge windows and high ceiling offer fantastic light during the day and at night Daniel has provided the perfect mood with soft lighting that seem to enhance the beautiful old school house. When Lisa and I arrived we were met by Daniel at the door and it was like we had known each other for years. After showing us around a bit it was time to get this evening of music started. You could almost feel the history in the building as you make your way up the stairs. The room is filled with chairs that were left in the building and can hold up to around 150 music lovers; it’s the perfect atmosphere to hear great music.

There were three bands on the bill this night beginning with the Kurtz Trio; which was a duo tonight. The duo featured Trudi Kurtz on Acoustic Guitar and Vocals and her twin brother Trent on Organ, Cajon, and Vocals. Trudi has the voice of an angel that blends well with Trent’s harmonies. The duo was joined at the beginning of the set by Miller Road Band member Carrie Miller on violin. The Americana/Folk sounds filled the venue; the pair warmed the room and was the perfect beginning to an amazing night. After a short intermission Daniel introduced the next band to perform; Andolino from Plain City, OH. The five piece band is a talented bunch of guys whose Indie/Rock sound resonated with the crowd. Alex Hamilton, Bryant Gingrich, Andrew Miller, Seth Showalter, and Andrew Weber all share vocal duties and the guys aren’t afraid to change instruments during the set making for a very entertaining and interesting show. In between bands folks were able to take advantage of some sweet treats and great coffee which I took full advantage of.

By the time Daniel Dye and the Miller Road Band took the stage the crowd had swollen to nearly standing room only. The band was introduced and all eyes were on the quartet from Springfield. Daniel Dye and the Miller Road Band is a family affair; the band consist of Daniel Dye (guitar, banjo, harmonica) and his talented niece Carrie Miller (violin, vocals), as well as nephews, Andrew Miller (guitar, banjo, mandolin, accordion, viola, cajon, xylophone), Thomas Miller (cello). The talent in the Dye family runs deep; Daniel’s sister also got into the act performing a couple of tunes with the band. The Americana/Folk/Roots sound of the band takes you back in time; a time before synthesizers and wah wah pedals. Daniel is an extraordinary Singer/Songwriter and his talent is on full display in the group’s self titled debut CD. The band played a few songs from the CD like “Saints and Sinners”, “Ohio”, and a song Daniel dedicated to his mother called “The Devil’s Drink.” Along with songs from the CD, the family also played a couple new tunes and even a gospel tune or two. The acoustics in the old school house are remarkable and has to be heard to be appreciated. There were times during the set where the music was so moving that that I had to fight back my emotions; I love when music move me like that. - Buckeye Music Magazine

By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer 9:20 AM Friday, September 2, 2011

MUTUAL — This could be the biggest thing to happen in Mutual since, well, uh, a little help here?

“It’s hard for me to find much history on Mutual, Ohio,” Daniel Dye said. “This is downtown right here.”

Dye, a 33-year-old folk singer who grew up a mile up the road, has been working to turn Mutual’s old town hall into a venue for Americana music in time for the inaugural Madden Road MusicFest on Saturday.

The daylong event will feature folk, bluegrass, gospel and even a little rock, with near-constant pickin’ on the porch out front.

Standing upstairs in the two-story, 19th-century building — that’s about as big as they come in Mutual — it’s easy to share Dye’s vision for the place.

“We just found something on the wall that says, ‘I was here for the show, 1901,’ ” Dye said.

Some guy named Lewis Rodman of Mutual left his mark on the wall 110 years ago, and now Dye wants to bring the shows back and put his own mark on the building.

The downstairs has long been home to his mom’s antiques store, one of just a couple of businesses in this Champaign County village.

“The upstairs? It’s been a home for pigeons for years,” Dye explained recently.

Dye and assorted family members are doing what they can — without much money — to reclaim the upstairs, which also unbelievably doubled as a gym at some point in the ancient past.

“It’s like a really nice barn,” Dye remarked.

But from the rear, a cornfield can be seen in the distance.

From the front, cars pass by on Ohio 29 in a hurry to get anywhere but here.

This is the exact kind of place that Dye’s own music conjures up.

It’s hard to listen to his self-produced debut album and not picture Mutual, Ohio, or somewhere like it.

He sings of losing a girl to a “city man with a $50 haircut and California tan,” and of riding the rails in a desperate search to find a place free of “the devil’s drink.”

Not a single one of Mutual’s 129 residents would presumably care to be identified with “Geraldine” — a grisly tune about a guy who only wishes he’d buried the body of his woman a little deeper in the sand — but the song still evokes Johnny Cash, anyway.

“I like the idea of songs that could’ve been sung 50 years ago,” Dye said, “or could be sung 50 years from today.”

Pete Seeger, who just happens to be another influence, would be mighty proud of a Dye original like “The Devil’s Drink.”

If you don’t find yourself wanting to sing along — “Train, train, train come and take me away!” — then you’re just too cool for school.

A graduate of a private Baptist high school in Urbana and Cedarville University who once sang in numerous churches with his family, the Dye Family Singers, Dye admittedly grew up in something of a bubble.

“I didn’t even hear of U2 until college,” he said. “It’s a little embarrassing to say that now.”

He took up guitar in college, teaching himself to play harmonica on the 45-minute drive each day from his parents’ house to Cedarville.

“I’d play guitar while driving,” he joked, “but that’s a little more dangerous.”

He still has faith, but he now has his doubts as well, he said.

Not everyone in his family gets this music of his, particularly a song like “Geraldine.”

“They’re tunes of being human. They’re not explicitly Christian,” said Dye, who teaches English as a second language at Ohio State University.

By his own admission, this first album is raw, but his 14 originals come through loud and clear, whether he’s backing himself with just an acoustic and a harmonica or getting his Mennonite niece and nephews to help out on violin, cello and backing vocals.

WYSO, for one, agrees.

The Yellow Springs NPR affiliate has been featuring a few tracks from the album, which is available from iTunes and CDBaby.

Dye wasn’t aware of just how big of a victory that was until he made his first visit to WYSO to perform on the air.

“I saw the stack of CDs there,” he said. “There were hundreds, if not thousands.”

You may have heard that you don’t need a record label anymore to make music.

That much is true.

You can record all the music you want — getting it played on the radio or reviewed by even a decent blog is something entirely different.

“I haven’t done it as successfully as I’d hoped,” Dye confessed. “I don’t even think the music industry is aware of my existence.

“I’d still like to get this album in the right hands.”

Doing it using Mutual’s town hall as a base of operations — a place with no water and no heat — would require something of a minor miracle.

But rural America is the place where Dye and his music seem to belong.

Funny enough, though, more than half of the songs on the album were actually written in 2007 during a 4½-month stay in one of the biggest cities in the world — Berlin.

His brother serves as the pastor of an international Baptist church there, and Dye met his wife, Yasmin, a nativ - Springfield News-Sun

Ever wonder what it would be like to crash a reunion of the family von Trapp?

OK, probably not.

But if you’d had the pleasure, as I did, to attend the Madden Road MusicFest Saturday, September 3, the thought may have at least fleetingly entered your mind as Mutual, Ohio’s one-time town hall and schoolhouse was brought back from decades of suspended animation, alive with the sound of music—thanks in large measure to a very talented family.

Local singer-songwriter Daniel Dye orchestrated the festival with a chorus of family members. His mother, Janet Dye, owns the Town Hall Emporium on the building’s first floor. He credits his sister Sarah Kelly, visiting from Massachusetts (check out her blog about her happy reacquaintance with Urbana), as the driving force behind the festival. She had the vision of a music festival as a way to begin raising money to restore the building and turn it into the Madden Road Music Hall, a permanent music venue.

Between bands at the MusicFest, Daniel, Sarah and other members of the Dye Family Singers – father David, sisters Amy Blanton and Jenny Miller, and brother Steve – harmonized gospel arrangements.

The next generation of the Dye clan got in on the act, too, as Andrew, Carrie and Thomas Miller (children of Jenny) joined their Uncle Daniel, backing up his vocals, guitar and harmonica with fiddle, cello, banjo, mandolin and accordion as the Miller Road Band*. Here’s a video of them performing “I’m Gonna Let You Go” as the final act of the Madden Road MusicFest.

The second floor of the old Mutual town hall—used in recent years to hold an overflow of antiques from the downstairs emporium—formed the perfect backdrop for the day’s celebration of roots music—from folk and Americana, to bluegrass and gospel, and even some acoustic indie rock.

The scene could have been lifted from the brittle, curled page of an album found in a trunk in the attic: bare, sepia-toned plaster walls, sunlight streaming through tall arched windows, four ceiling fans churning through the hot, damp late summer air.

In restoring the building, the Dyes hope to preserve much of its frozen-in-time charm – maybe even down to this scrawled notation they found when cleaning years of grime from a wall: “Lewis Rodman … Mutual Ohio … Jan. 5, 1901 at the Show.”

Fast forward a century and decade later … from babies to grandpas and grandmas, people filled the hall again on wooden chairs and benches, feet tapping the worn floorboards.

And the feeling of a bygone era before the age of social media, a traditional family reunion, a church gathering, spilled outside the old brick hall to a tent where people conversed over food and musicians gathered, one calling out a song title and all joining beautifully, in community.

* You have two chances to see Daniel Dye and the Miller Road Band live this weekend at the Ohio Fish and Shrimp Festival at Freshwater Farms of Ohio, north of Urbana – at 6 p.m. Friday, September 16 and 2:15 p.m. Saturday, September 17. - Champaign Uncorked

I was looking forward to hearing my favorite living musical legend over the Labor Day weekend, at the Detroit Jazz Festival. But then I read online that Dave Brubeck’s “medical team” (mere mortals have doctors) advised him to cancel. Although still a virtuoso of the keyboard, he is, after all, a few months shy of 91.

While concerned for him, I’ve overcome my disappointment. Now I’m looking forward to my new Labor Day weekend destination: Mutual, Ohio (population 129).

More specifically, I’m looking forward to a brand new music festival, the Madden Road MusicFest, which will debut in Mutual’s old town hall (5854 E. St. Rt. 29, at the corner of S. Mutual-Union Road), Saturday, September 3, noon to 9 p.m.

Mutual, situated at the intersection of State Routes 29 and 161 and surrounded by farmland, is a mere six and a half miles from my house in Urbana and 170 miles or so separated from the distractions of the Motor City (though just 40 miles from Columbus or 45 from Dayton).


For the old town hall of Mutual, Ohio, the writing's on the floor, marked in dust: The building will debut in its new role, music hall, September 3 at the Madden Road MusicFest. Daniel Dye, at right, with his wife, Yasmin, and brother-in-law Scott Blanton take a break from getting the building ready for showtime.
The Madden Road MusicFest is all about the music—a mix of folk, bluegrass, rock, gospel and Americana, performed by talented central Ohio musicians, including the coordinator and headliner of the whole affair, local singer/songwriter Daniel Dye. Dye, who recently completed a solo European tour, wants to restore the building to become a regular, intimate concert venue.

Tickets for the Madden Road MusicFest (at a reasonable $10 for the day or $6 for a half day) will support the restoration.

Performances will be on the second floor, above the Town Hall Emporium, an antique shop that Dye’s mother, Janet Dye, has run for the last several years. The building also served as a school with a scaled-down basketball court (a slate scoreboard, marked “Mutual” and “Visitors,” still hangs on a wall on the second floor).

On September 3, the lineup will be The Muleskinner Band, Andolino, Rockin’ Chairs, Like A Child, the Kurtz Trio, and Daniel Dye’s own band featuring two nephews and a niece, Daniel Dye and the Miller Road Band. Also featured is jazz guitarist Johnny O, who will be holding court outside the old town hall, inviting guests to bring instruments and join him in some pickin’ and grinnin’.

If you like your music up close and personal and want to have a part in preserving history, the Madden Road MusicFest is the place to be. See you there!

One more thing: food will be available for purchase – also to help support the cause – along with coffee from Hemisphere Coffee Roasters, the subject of a previous Champaign Uncorked! post.

For more, visit the Madden Road MusicFest website and Facebook page (and “like” it).

And here’s a little bonus: a bit of Mutual history that parallels my abbreviated Labor Day journey, more or less….

Mutual, incorporated as a village in 1869, traces its roots back to William Lafferty, a Union Township farmer. In 1840, he told his neighbors he was leaving for Texas. A few miles into his journey, at Old Post Road, now State Route 161, one of his wagon wheels snapped. Near that spot he built a cabin. Others settled around him. They named their new haven Little Texas, a name that was ultimately rejected, apparently by mutual agreement. (Never fear, citizens of Mutual. I will never refer to your home as Little Detroit.)
- Champaign Uncorked