“We’re all in the boat, we gotta get along” Set Sail on the Good Ship S.S. Brooklyn with Lloyd H. Miller and Friends Based on legendary sing-alongs in Brooklyn, new album offers DIY music-making – and encourages families to explore their neighborhoods. Songs were produced by Grammy winner Dean Jones. Brooklyn, NY – Music is a great way to build a community, particularly when everyone’s singing, tapping and dancing along with a performer. Human connection and a strong sense of place are the driving forces behind the new release by communal songster Lloyd Miller. His first solo album release, S.S. Brooklyn, will be available on September 24 (www.lloydhmiller.com). Lloyd Miller is also known as the leader of the indie band The Deedle Deedle Dees, which has won national awards and acclaim for a distinctive brand of all-ages historical rock music. Five or six times every week, hundreds of people sing along with Miller in various spaces in Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Ditmas Park, and Williamsburg. S.S. Brooklyn features some of the most-requested songs and original songs. Miller’s fans kept asking for a recording based on these popular sing-alongs (fictionalized in Amy Sohn’s novel Prospect Park West). The events are not only social occasions; they also provide an opportunity to support various causes like the Red Hook Initiative, Soleil Global and Sing for Hope. Audience members bring in donations, and Miller delivers them to support victims of Superstorm Sandy, or children in Haiti. It’s all part of Miller’s ongoing “music as outreach” mission. “Music and other arts are modes of connecting with new people and healing people and helping people tell their stories,” explains Miller.  The close-knit and interdependent nature of the diverse communities of Brooklyn, which became starkly evident last fall when Sandy hit, isolating the borough from the rest of New York City, inspired Miller in creating the songs on S.S. Brooklyn. As the title song goes, “We’re all in the boat, we gotta get along.” Several young attendees of Sing Along with Lloyd events are guest vocalists on S.S. Brooklyn, most apparent on the onomatopoeic “Honk Honk,” known to Lloyd’s legions of fans as “Honk Honk (Major Deegan).” Miller’s daughter Hazel helped write the lyrics to “Working on a Bridge,” which spotlights people like Winston Churchill and Dr. Seuss, who manage to work through personal challenges. “I can’t stop now, no I won’t stop, I’m too strong,” is the refrain of this inspiring sing-along tune. “Brooklyn by Bike” celebrates the joys of peddling around town to experience the borough’s street-level charms and history. “I’m a Rat” was co-written with Robert Sullivan, author of Rats, the best-selling book about NYC’s least-loved denizens. The “Seventeen Years (A Cicada Song),” released as a single in June, became a hit YouTube video when the long-lived insects emerged from their 17-year hibernation. As he produced S.S. Brooklyn, Grammy winner Dean Jones helped Miller capture the simplicity and energy of the sing-along gatherings. Guest artists include Marianne Tasick, Abby Rock and Debbie Lan, who provide contrast and added complexity to Miller’s driving vocals. Most songs hold to the “two instruments only” rule that guided the spare production. These tracks dare you to jump in with their easy lyrics and catchy melodies. In addition to his regular sing-along events this fall, Miller will host concerts at the Brooklyn Historical Society on the first Saturday of each month beginning November 2nd. A CD release concert is planned for October 13 at Shapeshifter Lab in Brooklyn, launching the Hip Tot Music Fest season. For more information about S.S. Brooklyn and the Sing Along with Lloyd & Friends events, visit www.lloydhmiller.com . Press Contact: Beth Blenz-Clucas, Sugar Mountain PR (503) 293-9498, beth@sugarmountainpr.com