BLAKE MILLS

Traditionally, when bands play late night talk shows, they face the cameras and play towards the audience. Virtually every artist does it the same way. This past January on Conan, in his first nationally televised performance as a solo artist, Blake Mills, rather than adapt to the format, bent it to adapt to him. Seated in a wooden chair with his girlfriend Danielle Haim and childhood pal Taylor Goldsmith circled around him, Mills transformed the grand setting into an intimate living room affair as he dove headfirst into "Heart Of Mine," an 80's Bob Dylan tune Blake covered for a recent Amnesty International benefit. With deftly arranged slices of slide guitar and honeyed harmonies, Mills swallowed the Dylan track and spit out something unequivocally his own.