Rising country music singer Michael “Moose” Miller performed at the Feast of the Flowering Moon in Chillicothe on Saturday, May 25. He is a of Pike County and he used to live in Waverly.
When asked why did you choose to perform at the feast of the flowering moon? Miller said, “It is a festival in Chillicothe. I grew up coming here with my family. It is awesome that they would have me come out. So, I love coming home. Any excuse to come home and see my family and friends, not have to plug in my GPS to see where I’m going. In Nashville, I’m always plugging in an address. It is a great opportunity. I’m thankful that they would have me.”
Currently, Miller has five songs out. He released a new song called “Everywhere I Go” and it came out at midnight on May 31. Moose is also playing a lot of shows and working on new music, he is also working on his first album.
“Honestly I wanna keep playing, keep making music and hopefully that leads to more and more shows. Because I love playing and I love writing songs, so I just wanna keep doing as much of that as I can.” Miller said. “My musical influences are I was raised on a lot of Southern Gospel and Bluegrass. So, I love the Isaacs and that is a big one for me because Sonya Isaac sang background vocal on a couple of the songs that I have out. Which is one of the coolest things for me to experience, it was cool and I was pretty starstruck by her. But I also love Tyler Childers and a lot of that kinda of Eastern Kentucky Appalachian music.”
Miller has a show in Nashville at a place called the Basement coming up in June. Then he will be back at the Pike County Fair on August 1, the place where it all began for him.
“I grew up playing and singing in Church, and that is where I first learned how to play guitar and sing,” Miller said. “But it was not until 2020 when I really started writing songs and I knew that it was something that I really wanted for myself as well. So, I started taking it a little bit more serious in 2020. I fell in love with writing songs, my outlet had always been basketball or sports growing up. Then I got to college and started writing down my thoughts and feelings about things, and over time it just turned into songs. I was like man, I’m in Nashville and it seems like a good time to do it.
“I think that I hold my songwriting and things like that really close to me,” Miller said. “I try to be as real and as vulnerable as I can with my lyrics and the music that I’m making. I guess, I just want people to know that it is all of me that is going into these songs. I want them to know that is really me behind the songs, and it is things that are real life whether I’ve been through it or someone that I have seen has been through it. I just want to be real with my writing and my music.”
According to Miller, he started singing at the age of eight or ten in church to hymns and stuff. He also started playing the guitar in church as well.
“I love coming back home to perform because I love Southern Ohio. I’ve always been proud to be from Southern Ohio and Pike County Ohio in particular, Miller said. It feels good that people have me come back home and sing. That means a lot to me, I just wanna make everybody here proud because they helped me so much through everything in my life, through sports, through everything. The News Watchman has been at basketball games, football games, baseball games, and so on and so forth. So, it feels good to have the support of your hometown for sure.”
When asked what made you want to sing country? “I think honestly just growing up in Southern Ohio and anytime my parents would play music growing up. If it wasn’t bluegrass or southern gospel then it was an old country song and that is just what has always felt natural to me. So, that is what I fell in love with first. Then later on when I was in college I really fell in love with Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan, people like that and I really love their storytelling and their songs,” Miller said.
Miller explained that he tries to write anything that he is feeling or anything that moves him. A lot of the songs that he has out so far are a little bit of a downer, but by the end of the songs, there is a ray of light and hopefulness about his music. However, he really wants to write about things that move him or that he feels like are real, everyday things that people go through or even think about.
“So everywhere I go is a song about finding a piece of home wherever you are.” Miller said. It is funny playing here and stuff because I don’t live in Southern Ohio anymore. I live in Nashville but I feel like I’m always looking for something that reminds me of being home. That is really what the song is about just traveling and everywhere you go, you can see where you are from. I really think it is just a song about looking for a piece of something that reminds you of home. Like in the song, I talk about how I grew up in Knockemstiff until I was five then we moved to Waverly. So, I lived out there and the road we lived on was called Black Run Road. But I think Knockemstiff is a funnier term.”
When asked do you know the reason why they call it Knockemstiff?
“No, I would like to think that a couple guys got in a fight a long long time ago and somebody got knocked out because it is spelled just like it sounds Knock-em-stiff”, Miller said. “So, I think I know the actual reason, but I’ll have to look into that.”
Miller explained that Knockemstiff is all the way out on Blain Highway towards the Paint Valley area.
“Everywhere I Go” was released on May 31. Miller said, “I am really excited about it because it is kind of a change of pace from the songs that I have out. It is a feel-good song that you can roll your windows down to this summer. I’m really excited to see how it does and see how people like it.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0