Steve Miller Band

The Steve Miller Band ripped through more than three dozen tracks during an eleven-day recording session at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in the spring of 2008; an enormous studio built by Lucas to accomodate symphony orchestras recording orchestral film soundtracks. The sessions followed a sold-out three-night run at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium, where Miller test drove some of the new material with Steve Miller Band guest vocalist Sonny Charles.

Charles is a veteran rhythm and blues performer; one of the founding members of the Checkmates, a long-standing Las Vegas R&B group that only ended a forty-five year run on the Strip in 2006 with the death of his partner, Marvin "Sweet Louie" Smith. Under the name Sonny Charles and the Checkmates Ltd., the group scored a nationwide hit with "Black Pearl" in 1969 produced by Phil Spector and the Checkmates have been a fixture on the Vegas scene ever since. Miller and Charles have been friends for years and Charles joined the Miller band on the 2008 tour as special guest.

Engineer Andy Johns, probably best known for his work with Led Zeppelin, brought his expert touch and heavy rock ear to the project, while Miller and company ran through a repertoire of blues and R&B numbers carefully selected by Miller. "This is the frat rock album of all time," he says.

-www.stevemillerband.com