Cleveland music world mourns loss of Bill 'Mr. Stress' Miller

BILL-MILLER-COLIN-DUSSAULT-COURTESY-COLIN.JPG

Cleveland bluesman Bill "Mr. Stress" Miller (left) died at his apartment home on Monday. He's pictured here with Colin Dussault, another Cleveland blues harp player who took up the challenge of helping the ill and nearly destitute Miller.

(Colin Dussault photo)

Bill "Mr. Stress" Miller plays a harmonica solo during jam night at Cebars in Cleveland on Sunday, July 27, 2002.

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Bill Miller, better known among Cleveland music fans as Mr. Stress, had a last request.

"He wanted a New Orleans-style funeral parade, down Ninth and Euclid, and wanted to do it at 5 o'clock at rush hour and tie up the whole city,'' said Colin Dussault, the harp-playing bluesman who basically took on the guardian's role for the 72-year-old musician.

On Monday, that dream came one step closer to reality. Miller, who had suffered for years from a variety of ailments, including the macular degeneration that essentially left him blind for the last 20 years of his life, died at his Musicians Tower apartment.

"He had nurse's aides who came to see him every couple of days, and uncharacteristically, he did not call her back when she called him on Monday,'' said an obviously saddened Dussault. "Tuesday, she showed up and found him deceased.''

The loss, though not unexpected, rocked many in the local music world. Singer-songwriter Alex Bevan, who has known and worked with Miller for almost 50 years, paid homage to his pal by writing a tune that noted the parallels between Miller and his favorite harp player:

Who's that standing on the corner
Wearing Paul Butterfield's shoes
Looking all around for Sonnyboy
Hot on the trail of the blues
The neon lights just sizzle
It's drizzling outside the Euc.
The band's setting up...  getting ready to play
And bartender turns up the juke

The cigarette smoke's heavy
The young girls wear their best
It's a blue jean crowd... Cleveland Proud
Sayin' Yes, yes yes... Mr. Stress!

"He was one cool guy,'' Bevan said in an email. "I met him in 1967 at the Well coffeehouse in East Cleveland. He turned my little suburban ass into a lover of the groove.''

Alan Greene, who played lead guitar for the Mr. Stress Band in the early '80s, said Miller was a devotee of the genre and, like his idol, Butterfield, was a groundbreaking musician.

"As a musician, he was the first guy that I remember who was a white fellow playing blues in Cleveland in the '60s when it wasn't fashionable yet,'' said Greene, who later added Miller to his own band and called it the Alan Greene Band, Featuring Mr. Stress.

"He was so dedicated to the blues,'' Greene said. "He never wanted to do it in the most commercial way, he wanted to do it in the proper way.''

Greene and Kendall Stauffer, who played lead guitar in the Tree Stumps, another seminal Cleveland band, both joked that Miller could be a bit on the irascible side.

"He was a very loving man, but showed it through insult,'' said Stauffer. "He called Jimmy Ley [another Cleveland musician] 'the man with the $500 shoes and the $10 keyboard,' and he often told me, 'You're not getting older, you're getting bitter.'

"On the darkest times, of each of our lives, we insulted each other heavily, and it helped a little,'' Stauffer said. "I can also tell you he was very introspective and had a very sensitive side, which only came out a few times over the years.''

"It was that old Don Rickles thing,'' said Greene. "If you hadn't been insulted by Don Rickles, you hadn't made it in show business.'' It was the same with Miller, who could push friends away with a barb one day and draw them into his heart the next.

Stauffer said Miller's ex-wife, Wende, actually is responsible for his nickname.

"The name Mr. Stress came from Wende, who was a nurse, and told Bill that when someone flipped out, and needed to be restrained, they would page 'Mr. Stress to Room 123,' '' Stauffer said. "He thought it was hilarious and it fit.''

Florida-based Smog Veil Records is putting together a collection of music and more called "Mr. Stress Blues Band Live At The Brick Cottage 1972-73.'' It is set for a November release and will be available in three formats - vinyl, CD and digital, available as a download or streaming.

"This release comprises performances by the MSBB when the band consisted of Bill 'Mr. Stress' Miller on vocals/harmonica, Chuck 'Pontiac Slim' Drazdik on guitar, 'Professor' Mike Sands on piano, Tom Rinda on bass, and Dr. Pete Sinks (1972) and Kenny Ruscitto (1973) on drums,'' said Nick Blakey, a researcher for Smog Veil, in an email.

"I have been extensively interviewing former members of the MSBB since last year and Bill was a huge help in getting me to former members (and his ex-wife Wende!),'' said Blakey.

Dussault, who had long been admirer of his fellow harp player, came to the aid of a sick, broke and about-to-be-homeless Miller a bit more than a year ago.

"Quite frankly, it was sobering to see somebody I held up as an icon and once had thousands of fans and friends absolutely flailing with no money and no one to help him,'' Dussault said.

"He should have been a national hero,'' said Dussault, who noted that a memorial concert is in the works. "He had a record deal and he refused to sign it because he actually READ it.''

Dussault put together a four-disc collection of Mr. Stress classics and sells it on his own website, colindussault.com. The money from the "Mr. Stress Relief Project,'' which features 58 artists ranging from Michael Stanley to Bevan and more, plus an impressive 20-page full-color booklet of vintage photos, helped get Miller back on his feet. Now, it will help cover the cost of Miller's final expenses.

And maybe even a good old New Orleans-style funeral parade down Ninth and Euclid.

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