Southern gospel from Richard Miller - also know as Little Richard Miller - backed up by The Dixie Echoes of Pensacola, FL. Miller plays guitar and organ and sings in a beautiful, clear tenor voice. Yes that is right. The curious cover scene is what usually first draws eyes to this hard to find treasure. That mix of good, solid Southern gospel and the curiosity of what manor of magic makes playing the organ - playing the guitar?! - possible for this man born, not merely without hands, but without limbs.
As the back cover of the album explains, Miller was born "without arms and legs on November 28, 1942." His name appears in an ad in Billboard Magazine of September 4, 1943 - not quite a year old - as entry number 22 in a list of "The greatest array of outstanding human oddities and strange performances ever assembled" appearing at Chicago's Park Amusement Co, Inc. Little Richard Miller was billed as the "most sensational human oddity of all times Seven months old armless and legless boy alive." Despite his difficult circumstances, by 10 he was playing ukelele and by 16 had finished high school. He wrote a book about his life too. Available for $2 directly by mail. Or so it was in 1966 when this lp was released - same year Miller graduated from the University of Texas. So many accomplishments as he tours as a performer too, presumably in his spiffy, personalized bus in cool white and blue displayed on the cover.
All these efforts, accomplishments, and talented voice to boot, make the tragic ending Mr. Miller met with, all the more sorrowful. Miller, having moved on from Texas and living now in Nogales, Mexico was found lying on a street, near the border fence on February 4, 2017. Investigators found evidence of a struggle inside his apartment nearby. He made it outside where he succumbed to injuries. His throat had been cut.
Richard Miller entered the world with disadvantages that would sink so many of us. And with that difficult difference, he did the seemingly impossible and made an adventurous, colorful and accomplished life for himself. Its more the shame that a senseless act of violence should bring down such a man.
Check out Miller's fine vocals and wonder at his playing here (the album includes two instrumentals, both played by Miller):
Sources:
Billboard Magazine, Sept. 4, 1943 Vol. 55 No. 36, p34
Nogales International Feb 7, 2017 Disabled U.S. man found dead in street in Nogales, Sonora
Planet Nogales, Feb 4, 2017, American Senior Citizen Murdered in Nogales, Mexico
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