Maine blues band upbeat about future> Mark Miller’s group signs deal with Chinnock’s production company

After 30 years of working as a professional musician, Mark Miller may be about to be discovered.

Miller, of Orrington, and his producer, Bill Chinnock, are hoping the time has come for the Mark Miller Blues Band.

“The blues are in again, thanks to Eric Clapton’s `Unplugged,”‘ Chinnock said. “Labels are looking for blues artists, and adult-alternative radio stations are playing the blues. Artists in the 40s are enjoying renewed success.”

Miller, 44, believes the time is right as well.

“I’m at the right age,” he said. “I know what I want to play. I think we stand a pretty good chance if someone will give us some time, and put some money into us.”

Miller and Chinnock, who have been friends since the early ’70s, formed a business arrangement after Chinnock received a call from another friend, who runs Dan Aykroyd’s House of Blues label.

Chinnock was offered the chance to record a blues album. But with his The Artist Group production studio in Fairfield taking off, and his own recording plans in the works, Chinnock said thanks but no thanks.

“When I hung up the phone, I thought of Mark,” Chinnock recalled. “He’s a very, very talented guitar player, who really deserves a record deal. The timing is right, and Mark is here.”

Chinnock caught Miller’s band at a club, then signed him to a 14-month deal. It’s the first time Chinnock has put his production company behind a Maine artist. Miller had some doubts after waiting so long for such an opportunity.

“I wondered if I was good enough,” Miller said. “I had played around clubs for so long, and never got a break, that I wondered if I’m up to the level of the big boys.”

Chinnock allayed any fears that Miller had.

“He told me that I spoke with the instrument, and that he could tell me apart from other guitar players,” Miller said. “I was overwhelmed with the fact that he believed in me.”

The next step was readying a package to pitch Miller to record labels, including some demos and a video.

So Miller, the lead guitarist and vocalist, drummer Rick Curless (also Chinnock’s brother-in-law), bassist Bill Hansen and keyboardist Robin Worthley went into the studio to record songs Miller and Chinnock had written. Miller said Chinnock made the recording session easy.

“I knew that he’s a guy who can capture what I do, which is improvisation,” Miller said. “I don’t like to do the same thing twice. We almost always kept the first take. We had to hurry, but that was good. I’m no good after one or two takes.”

Miller learned how to work in the studio while backing up Brad Delp, lead singer of the group Boston, during the late ’80s.

“It was a high-pressure situation,” he recalled. “I’m able to go into the studio and do things very quickly. I try not to fuss about anything.”

Director Richard Searles shot both black-and-white and color video footage to produce a 1 1/2-minute video, to be sent with the demos. Chinnock said the packages went out to the record companies in late March.

“Bill’s pretty certain we can land something,” Miller said. “He wants a big label, but I’d be happy with something smaller. But I’m not much of a businessperson. I’m an artist, who runs off emotions.”

Miller, who was born in Houlton and grew up in the Millinocket area, has been playing the guitar publicly since age 6. He formed his first group, the Stingrays, at age 11.

The death of his mother, when he was 9, led him to discover the blues.

“That’s when the blues became very, very important to me, when I learned to speak with the instrument, to show emotion instead of playing from a book,” Miller said.

Since then, Miller has been playing whatever kind of music it took to survive as a musician in Maine. He formed his blues band five years ago. The group plays clubs around New England, including the Blue Bayou in Brewer, the Sea Dog in Bangor, and even the House of Blues in Cambridge, Mass.

Even if a record deal doesn’t come his way, Miller will still be on the road performing.

“It’s the reason I live, the reason I exist,” he said. “I don’t have any other choice. I have to play.”