Andy Miller is a writer and musician associated with spoken word and finance themes, with a history of moving through several West Coast music scenes before later living in New York City. He begins playing guitar at six, on a Sears student classical guitar, and learns from country artists including Hank Williams, Willie Nelson and Patsy Cline.

Early bands and West Coast work

In Washington, he fronts the teenage punk band The Nitwits. At seventeen, he moves to California, studies jazz in depth, and founds Johnny Walker and the Rock-a-holics, a heroin lounge band that opens for Granddaddy.

Solo projects and later bands

At the start of the 2000s, he is based in San Francisco under the name Cowboy Sunset, where he focuses on country and bluegrass and opens for Hope Sandoval. In 2009, he relocates to Portland, Oregon, and forms The Red Dakota Revival Show.

Style and influences

Miller’s music draws on older American forms, combining blues, jazz, gospel and country in a style described as junkyard jazz. His influences include Skip James, the Memphis Jug Band and Jimmie Rodgers, along with later figures such as Merle Haggard, Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and Tom Waits, and contemporary artists including AA Bondy, William Elliot Whitmore, M Ward and Jolie Holland.

His work is presented as rooted in the American musical past, moving between country, bluegrass, punk, jazz and related forms across different stages of his career.