"Miller's Reel", also known as "The Dawn", "The Dawning of the Day", "Dusty Miller", "The Spirit of 1880", "The Twenty-Eighth of January", "The Twenty-Second of February" or "The Miller" is an American, Irish and British reel in A Major. The parts are played AB (Bayard, Silberberg), AABB (most versions) or AA'BB' (Phillips). "Miller's Reel" is a fairly common and widely known fiddle tune in America, although it is also heard in Scotland ("The Miller") and Ireland ("The Dawn" or "The Dawning of the Day"). There seems no particular antiquity to Irish versions, however and the provenance may be American. The melody is very similar to "The Spirit of 1880" and in modern times it is also known as "The Twenty-Eighth of January". The reel appears as "The Twenty-Second of February" in George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels, vol. II (1839). The composition is credited to New England bandleader and tune composer Zeke Backus in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883), published by Elias Howe in Boston and in Coes' Album of Jigs and Reels (1876). Coes performed with the San Francisco Minstrels in California from 1852 to 1859. Little is known of Backus, who seems to have been a sometime minstrel performer and apparently spent at least some time in San Francisco. "Miller's Reel" was published earlier in another of Elias Howe's publications, 1000 Jigs and Reels (c. 1867) as an untitled 'reel' included in the section of schottisches and it may be that Howe's source for the tune in that publication was also Backus. It was printed in Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1981)(appears as untitled reel), Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983), R.P. Christeson's Old Time Fiddler's Repertory, vol. 2 (1984), George H. Coes Coes' Album of Jigs and Reels, something new, for professional and amateur violinists, leaders of orchestras, quadrille bands, and clog, reel and jig dancers; consisting of a Grand Collection of entirely New and Original Clog-Hornpipes, Reels, jigs, Scotch Reels, Irish Reels and Jigs, Waltzes, Walk-Arounds, etc. (1876), Cole's 1000 Fiddle Tunes (1940), Frets Magazine (February 1986), Howe's 1000 Jigs and Reels (c. 1867)(appears as an untitled "Reel"), Jarman's The Cornhuskers Book of Square Dance Tunes (1944), Jarman and Hansen's Old Time Dance Tunes (1951), Johnson's Kitchen Musician No. 20: A Twenty Year Anniversary Collection (2003)(appears as "The Miller"), Messer's Way Down East Fiddlin' Tunes, No. 13, Miller & Perron's New England Fiddler's Repertoire (1983), O'Malley & Atwood's Seventy Good Old Dances (1919), Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994), Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883), Silberberg's Fiddle Tunes I Learned at the Tractor Tavern (2002), Songer's Portland Collection (1997) and Sweet's Fifer's Delight (1964/1981). It was recorded by Lonnie Robertson (Mo.), 1965-66, Norman Solomon on Texas Fiddle Favorites, F&W String Band on F&W String Band 2, Red Clay Ramblers (1974), The Campbell Family on Champion Fiddlers, Alister Anderson on Traditional Tunes, Byron Berline on Dad's Favorites and Rodney Miller on Airplane II (1987).