Jo Miller and Her Burly Roughnecks opening for Chuck Berry at Sky Church, Experience Music Project, Seattle, WA, May 12, 2001

On May 12, 2001, the museum (then the Experience Music Project) hosted the “Father of Rock and Roll” Chuck Berry (b. 1926) at Sky Church, with an opener by Jo Miller and Her Burly Roughnecks. Berry stepped in for Jerry Lee Lewis (b. 1935) after he had to cancel due to illness, as part of the museum’s series of events honoring pioneering Memphis Rock label, Sun Records. This is a contact sheet of photographs by Stanley Smith (b. Unknown). 

Jo Miller and Her Burly Roughnecks were an offshoot of an earlier band, Ranch Romance, whose name came from a 1930s Western pulp fiction magazine called Ranch Romances, which was a Seattle Country, Swing, and Bluegrass band active between 1989 and 1999. Lead singer and guitarist Jo Miller (b. unknown) and upright bassist Nancy Katz (b. unknown) were joined by Barbara Lamb (b. unknown) on fiddle and Lisa Theo (b. unknown) on mandolin until the two left in 1991. Ranch Romance then welcomed Nova Karina Devonie (b. unknown) on accordion and David Miles Keenan (b. unknown) on guitar, mandolin, and banjo. It was this second lineup, with the addition of bassist Corey Kaiser (b. unknown), which was known as Jo Miller and Her Burly Roughnecks.