East TN’s own Milkman & The Big Band takes fans along for a growing ride
There are many modern-day musicians who trace their musical origins to
the Beatles. Dino Nassios is one of them. A lover of technology and computers, Dino never considered himself a musician, but things changed when he saw Paul McCartney live in Georgia. “That concert just opened my eyes. And it was like a religious-like happening,” Dino says. “It woke something in me.”
He began to learn different instruments and learned to write songs. He soon met fellow musician, Ryan Tabor, who would end up becoming his writing partner, and a band, now well-loved by East Tennesseans, began to form.
This was back during Covid, Dino tells me, “We were just hunkered down and we needed something to do. We’d always had a passion for music and I had big aspi- rations to record music with instruments, but more than the typical four-piece rock band.” Dino found a fascination with the horns, strings, and instrumental fury that went into the creation of the Beatles albums he adored.
So he, Ryan, and several fellow musicians—”kind of unconventional,” he admits—attended an open mic night. The band got a positive reaction. And with that they simply kept showing up and kept growing, eventually becoming Milkman & The Big Band. “As of today, we’re actually 21 people,” Dino laughs. “Now the band has gotten really, really big.” The band encompasses two keyboardists, drums, percussion, bass, a string section, horns and as of late summer, three backup singers.
This past March, Dino and the band put out their first studio album, Let Me Tell You, followed by their latest album, Milkman Live. “We’ve been grinding away making new songs and covering our favorite songs and rocking and rolling,” Dino says.
As I learned more about Milkman & The Big Band, it most certainly begged the question: how does one travel with that size band? For the moment, it’s simple.
“We’re pretty contained to East Tennessee,” he says. Part of that is due to the fact they are all from the region. But bigger moves are on the way, and while Dino couldn’t talk about it just yet as there were still some moving parts to iron out, he had this to say during our call, “In 2025, bigger things are to come. And I mean that sincerely. I know every indie band ever says, ‘Oh, big things are coming,’ and nothing ever happens but I can assure you that you’ll see at the Tennessee Theater again next year.” I will definitely look forward to seeing their next moves.
To learn more about Milkman & The Big Band, visit milkmanbigband.com.