Adam Miller Performance at A.K. Smiley Library

One of the premier autoharpists in the world, Adam Miller, is a renowned American folksinger and natural-born storyteller. An accomplished folklorist, historian, musicologist, and song-collector, he has amassed a repertoire of over 5,000 songs. Miller accompanies his rich, resonant baritone voice with lively finger-picking acoustic guitar and beautiful autoharp melodies. Miller performed his Little House on the Prairie show at the A.K. Smiley Library on Sunday Jan. 24. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s classic “Little House on the Prairie” books have become part of American literature and American folklore. They tell of a time before radio and recordings – when families made their own music. This sing-alone program revisited folksongs from the time of the settlement of the state of Kansas, after the American Civil War. Many of the well-known (and not-so-well-known) folksongs used in the program were sung by the family in Wilder’s books. Miller’s folksongs and ballads are the songs of America’s heritage; a window into the soul of our nation in its youth. “I have always had a great interest in how folksongs travel through history, and how history travels through folksongs,” Miller explained. A performer who enlightened as well as entertained, Miller pointed out fascinating connections between events in history and the songs that survived them. And like radio’s Paul Harvey, he managed to give you “the rest of the story” -- providing the often surprising provenance of seemingly innocuous folksongs. Miller has had numerous appearances at the Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival, the Tumbleweed Music Festival, the California Traditional Music Society’s Summer Solstice Festival, and the Kentucky Music Weekend which have made him a national favorite.