Dave Milliken guitar bass piano vocals

Performer • Teacher • Songwriter

bio

Biography
•
Discography

Songwriting Discography
•
Past Bands

For info about current groups that Dave is in, consult the bands page. A list of upcoming shows is available on the home page.

Biography

Dave Milliken performs both as a solo act and with several groups including the 80's/90's cover band The Retrogrades, the nine-piece classic soul and Motown group Soul Cracker and the Latin acoustic guitar duo Frets on Fire.

Dave's guitar work is featured on CDs by Steel Moon, Andrea England, Junkyard Symphony and Saddledogs.

He has co-written songs that appear on CDs by Steel Moon, Katelyn Dawn, Andrea England and Kathy Kennedy.

Dave teaches acoustic, electric and bass guitar, as well as piano, in a variety of styles including rock, alternative, folk, blues, funk, reggae and classical. He has been a teacher since 1990, both at his home studio and until 2005 at the Ottawa Folklore Centre School of Music.

Dave studied classical guitar with Steve Rollins and Ray Sealey, piano with Douglas Voice and voice with Maria Knapik. Dave attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston and graduated from the University of Ottawa in 1990 with a Bachelor of Music.

Dave is a member of SOCAN (the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada).

Dave Milliken with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Noah Hunt

Left to right: Noah Hunt, Dave, Kenny Wayne Shepherd

Discography

Dave's guitar work is featured on the following CDs:

Blue. Green. Aquamarine.

Terry Gomes

(Independent release, 2015)

Steel Moon

Steel Moon

(Independent release, 2011)

Also features Dave on bass,
keyboards and vocals.

Lemonade

Andrea England

(Lemonade Factory Records, Maple Nationwide/Universal Music, 2004)

Planet Junk

Junkyard Symphony

(Boulder Records, 2002)

Lemonade (Single)

Andrea England

(Independent release, 2002)

Heart Wide Open

Andrea England

(Independent release, 1999)

Fetch

Saddledogs

(Independent release, 1994)

Songwriting Discography

Dave has co-written songs with Lise Larocque, Andrea England, Katelyn Dawn & Kathy Kennedy. Some of these songs are featured on the following CDs:

Hope & Other Sins

Andrea England

(Lemonade Factory Music, 2012)

Steel Moon

Steel Moon

(Independent release, 2011)

The Window

Katelyn Dawn

(Independent release, 2008)

Lemonade

Andrea England

(Lemonade Factory Records,
Maple Nationwide/Universal Music, 2004)

Lemonade (Single)

Andrea England

(Independent release, 2002)

Heaven

Kathy Kennedy

(Independent release, 2001)

Past Bands

Dave has been an integral member of many Ottawa-based rock, funk, R&B and country groups:

Steel Moon

Dave played guitar and sang in this contemporary original folk duo with singer Lise Larocque in which they co-wrote all the songs. They released an eponymous album in 2011, featuring the following musicians:

Dave: guitar, bass, keys, vocals
Lise Larocque: vocals, percussion
Nathan McLaren: drums, percussion
Jack MacGregor: drums
Leah Wyber: cello
Beverley Robinson: flute
Mark Bailey: flugelhorn

After that, for live shows, they performed as a five-piece rock band:

Dave: guitar, vocals
Lise Larocque: vocals, percussion
Alain Morier: guitar
Jon Coote: bass
Jack MacGregor: drums

Check out the old web site here and click below to hear album samples on iTunes.
Steel Moon Promo Shot (photo by Sue Bird)

The Priorities

For more than 20 years until 2022, Dave played bass in The Priorities, a 7-piece band also featuring guitar, keyboards, drums, trumpet, trombone and tenor saxophone. They cover R&B, Motown, soul, swing and blues with lots of energy and great vocals.

The Priorities at Greenfields

Duo Capriccio

Dave played classical guitar with flutist Beverley Robinson in this duo that had an extensive repertoire of renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, folk and latin music. Check out the old website here.

Beverley and Dave

Moffatt & Milliken

This duo with Brady Moffatt featured them both singing and playing acoustic guitars on an eclectic mix of rock, folk, blues & the occasional Spanish song.

Dave and Brady at the Whalesbone

Thurman Murman

Moffatt & Milliken traded in their acoustic guitars for electrics and added the powerhouse rhythm section of Mike Thompson on bass and Gerard Tweedie on drums.

Andrea England

Dave wrote, recorded and performed with the Toronto-based Nova Scotian singer-songwriter Andrea England. They were featured on CBC Radio, CJOH-TV and CHRO-TV. They performed at the 2000 Stan Rogers Folk Festival in Nova Scotia and the 2002 East Coast Music Awards Songwriters' Circle in Saint John, New Brunswick. In Ontario they performed at the 2002 North By Northeast music festival and opened for Ashley MacIsaac, Tara MacLean, Jorane, Sue Medley and Kilt.

Andrea and Dave

Namaoke

Dave hosted a unique live-music karaoke show where audience members got to sing with accompaniment by real musicians. After consulting with a couple of Japanese-speakers, Dave and Jonny O came up with a new term, Namaoke, to describe their show. While the Japanese "kara" means empty and karaoke is essentially "empty orchestra", Namaoke represents "live orchestra". Audience members chose from a list of more than 400 songs and signed up for their turn to wow the crowd. A lyric sheet was available when they got up on stage and they sang with accompaniment by Dave on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, and by Jonny on percussion.

Namaoke at the Elbow Room

Namaoke at the Great Canadian Cabin

Milliken

Dave sang and played acoustic and electric guitar in this three-piece rock band that performed a mix of funkified cover tunes and dynamic original songs.