Friday concert features SUU students

Gabe and Skylar Miller, both SUU students and Cedar City natives, will appear in concert Friday night with their group, the Back Country Band.

By KELSEY BLACKWELL
UNIVERSITY JOURNAL

Gabe Miller and the Back Country Band are finally getting the opportunity they’ve been waiting for.
Miller and his group will headline their first Cedar City concert Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the Randall Jones Theatre.
Miller, a junior accounting major from Cedar City, and his brother Skylar Miller, a junior undeclared major from Cedar City, said they’ve wanted to have a concert in or around Cedar City for a year.
“We want people to be able to get out and see what local talent can do,” Gabe said. “This is one of the first times a local band has had the opportunity to perform on a big stage, and we want to open the doors for other local performers as a way to showcase their music.”
Though the band has had exposure playing at weddings and partys, Gabe said the band has put too much effort into its music to play only as background music.
“I’ve never had the opportunity where people can just sit and listen to my music,” Gabe said. “You don’t practice and write and perform just to be part of the background. If I’m going to be writing my own music and putting out CDs, I wanted to do something to try to make something of it.”
Though band members live too far from each other to have regular practice, Gabe said the group is as ready as it’ll ever be for the Friday night performance.
“We’ve been working together for five years and the musicians are all very talented,” he said. “They’ve played long enough at a level musically that the performance will be more of a challenge then actually playing the music.”
Other than Gabe, the lead singer and songwriter, and his brother Skylar on drums, the Back Country Band includes Chris McCormick of Canonville on piano, Shane Millett of Kingston on steel and lead guitars, and Paul Harnett of Sterling on bass.
Gabe said the group also frequently invites artists to sit in with them throughout the state.
As a country band, Gabe said the group’s musical style is something that more than just country fans will enjoy.
“I’ve had enough people buy my CDs that totally don’t even like country and say, ‘Man, that’s awesome,’” he said. “I think we have crossover appeal.”
Gabe said he draws from different genres of music when he’s writing but ultimately tries to pull from common human emotions.
“It’s like a mix of George Strait, Chris Ledoux and Van Halen,” music. I love rock and roll and rap. Lyrically, though, I always try to appeal to emotion. If someone is driving down the road by Gabe said. “I’ve had all those influences and I like all kinds of themselves in a car listening to music, there’s always those songs