Guitarist Jeff Miller, who performs several times a week at local coffeehouses, opens the show with the release of "Something Different," another live-in-the-studio guitar album. ...Miller has a technical approach. He studied guitar performance at Berklee College of Music and has a dynamic acoustic style reminiscent of Steve Tibbetts and Phil Keaggy.
"When I'm playing," he says, "all this theory is going through my head because that's what I studied. It's a challenge for me to not think of that and approach the song with a clean slate."

The show is also a farewell party, of sorts. Miller says he's a month or so away from moving to a town where his guitar work might have a stronger chance of catching the attention of the music industry.

Jeff Miller's debut album, "Trying to Be Cool," was a minor pop tour-de-force, an updated version of Todd Rundgren's "Something Anything," with the Upper St. Clair resident playing all instruments save drums.

His encore effort takes an opposite tack. "Something Different" is literally that, as Miller strips away the studio gimmickry for his second release. Recorded live in the studio, the 17 acoustic songs recall artists as diverse as Joseph Arthur and James Keelaghan, with a bit of Michael Hedges' intricate guitar work.

The CD release party for "Something Different" is Friday at Club Cafe. Also on the bill is another local of musician of note, Dave Pahanish, who is trotting out his new CD, "Shine." Admission for the 7 p.m. show is $7, $8 at the door.

It takes guts to name check a real person in a break-up song. But there, in the second verse of "Trying to Be Cool," Jeff Miller sings to the gal who dumped him: "And to my surprise/ you're there with Mike Grimes/ How quickly he's taken my place." Lest you think Grimes is a made-up antagonist, he's also thanked in the liner notes. All this wouldn't mean bupkis if Miller didn't deliver the song convincingly in an achy Alex Chilton-esque voice. The song serves as the title track and centerpiece of the solo disc by Miller, who also play[ed] lead guitar in the Dave Pahanish Band. A graduate of the Berklee School of Music, he handles everything except drums, which includes violin, mandolin and keyboards, along with a strong voice and good ear for arrangements. The results make an impressive debut album.