About Me
In 2002 three friends decided it was time to do an album of their own. With no record deal, they formed Merlin Sights Records. The three were, Tommy Miles, Spooner Oldham and Steve Tucker.So in a cabin on the Elk River, in the Muscle Shoals area of Alabama, the journey began. It didn't get immediate results, for these three friends had other irons in the fire.Between Spooners touring with Neil Young, Dan Penn and others, Steve doing his thing in a blues project in Cookeville Tennessee and Tommy flying helicopters in western wildfires, it took a while. Winter time was about the only time to work in the studio. So over the next four years, they wrote and recorded when they could. With the help of songwriter Bill Blackburn and Steve(Howler)Foster, they laid down the basic traks and wrote tunes. In the meantime, out in California, Tommy met a fiddle player, Melissa Copenhaver, and struck up a musical partnership and Melissa became the third member of Harmony-n-Gritz. This was not to be a solo project, so Spooner came up with a name for the band, Harmony-n-Gritz, so as to be its own entity.With outside help from a few friends like Scott Davis (guitar), Rex Larson(acoustic guitar), and cousin M.T. Miles to play bass. Four years later they had finished "Take Me Back Biloxi". The name came about by chance. Tommy had a song, "Take Me Back Biloxi", a song about his home town and homesick blues. It was not meant to be the title. After hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, they decided to name the cd for that particular song and the fact that Tommys home town was destroyed for the second time in his lifetime, the first being hurricane Camille in 1969. Live shows didn't come into play as Spooner went on tour with Neil Young and then with CSN&Y. Tommy did a couple weeks of promo touring through the south doing radio promotion. He and Melissa also went to Biloxi for the one year anniversary of Katrina, were they played a show at the premier of the documentary film, "Katrina Diary" by Redwire Films of Biloxi. They have three songs on the films soundtrack. Tommy started his musical career in his hometown of Biloxi Miss, at the tender age of 15 in the garage with a couple friends. This led to having a regional following for his band, The Rock Pyle, that played clubs and venues on the Gulf Coast and through out the southern states. In 1969 he moved to California to try his luck and talent, with the help of his good friend Chris Ethridge( Flying Burrito Bros, Willie Nelson Family Band, ect.). Before he got started, he was severely injured in a car accident, this put a real damper on his musical journey. It would be a five year layoff, until he ran into his ole friend, Chris Ethridge again. This time, Chris was with the Willie Nelson Family Band, and told Tommy that if he wanted to put a band together, they would help out. That meeting started Tommy going again, and he started the Merlin Sights Band, a "country" band that he formed using rock&roll players, with the heavy influence of the sounds of the South. On the verge of "success" but with band-mate troubles, Tommy disbanded the MSB and he and drummer Steve Tucker went in the recording studio business. No fun there, and within a couple years and his marriage on the rocks, he headed for Los Angeles. It was there he joined up with friend Spooner Oldham and legendary singer-songwriter Delaney Bramlett. Together they put together a studio at Delaney's ranch and started writing and recording. Tommy was priviledged to "apprentice" with these to great songwriters and he honed his songwriting craft with their help. Together they did some "really good things" there on Delaneys ranch. Then came personal tragedy knocking at Tommys door, again. His 11yr old son, Christopher Leon Miles was killed by a speeding car on his way home from school, on his bicycle. This was a hard blow that Tommy has never gotten over. Tommy left LA and went back to Northern California to be with his daughter, Amy. He set up his studio and went to writing and recording new stuff, and an occasional trip to Nashville and Muscle Shoals Alabama, where by this time Spooner and family moved back to from LA. Tommy moved to the Nashville area and tried his luck there, but Nashville called him a "hillbilly" and they didn't want that kind of music anymore, so he moved down to Spooners home in the Shoals area, where he and Spooner started writing again. Missing his family and grandson, he moved back to California, but before he left, the seeds of Tommy Miles with Harmony-n-Gritz was planted.
