Kerry Mills
American ragtime composer and music publishing executive

Kerry Mills

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American ragtime composer and music publishing executive
Gender:
Male
Birth:
1 February 1869(Philadelphia, USA)
Death:
5 December 1948(Hawthorne, USA)
Star sign:
Genres:
Instruments:
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Biography

Introduction

Kerry Mills (né Frederick Allen Mills; 1 February 1869 in Philadelphia – 5 December 1948 in Hawthorne, California) was an American ragtime composer and music publishing executive of popular music during the Tin Pan Alley era. His stylistically diverse music ranged from ragtime through cakewalk to marches. He was most prolific between 1895 and 1918.

Career

Mills trained as a violinist and was head of the Violin Department of the University of Michigan School of Music when he began composing.He moved to New York City in 1895 and started a music publishing firm, (F. A. Mills Music Publisher), publishing his own work and that of others.


Selected works

  • "Any Old Port in a Storm"
  • "At A Georgia Camp-meeting" listen to:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLR2ZI0evgs
  • "Impecunious Davis"
  • "In The City Of Sighs And Tears"
  • "Just For The Sake Of Society"
  • "Kerry Mills' Barn Dance"
  • "Let's All Go Up To Maud's"
  • "Like A Star That Falls From Heaven"
  • "The Longest Way 'Round Is The Sweetest Way Home"
  • "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" (words by Andrew B. Sterling)
  • "Red Wing" (words by Thurland Chattaway).Mills adapted the melody from Schumann's "The Happy Farmer"
  • "We'll Be Together When the Clouds Roll By" (words by Alfred Bryan)
  • "While The Old Mill Wheel Is Turning"
  • "Whistling Rufus"