Guitarist Melvin Miller Jr.

A couple weeks ago a player came to my shop with a nice old Gibson 335 with a broken headstock.
His name was Mel Miller and he was soft-spoken, polite and cared a great deal about his guitar. All good qualities. After I asked him a few questions he shared some of his musical background.

Mel was the pit guitarist for Mo-town for one…He was also the guitarist for The Supremes in the mid 1970’s, writing 2 songs on their last album. Mel was a staff songwriter with Holland Dozier Holland and also worked with Funk Brothers bassist James Jamerson. In addition to that he was the musical director for Motown’s The Originals. The list of acts and artists Mel has played with is substantial.

These days Mel is the musical director for Dr. K’s Motown Revue a slammin band that I had the pleasure of hearing several years ago.

Mel was happy with the repair to his great guitar, played a bit, thanked me and off he went! It’s always great to meet and get to know artists who were there to help shape one of America’s original art forms.