The Milner family moved frequently following World War II, the result being the brothers grew up in far-flung localities including Birmingham; Ballybunion, County Kerry; Toronto, Canada and Brooklyn, New York.
In 2009, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, an arm of the Smithsonian Institution, released "Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea," which features many of Irish America's foremost musicians and singers, including John Doyle, Joanie Madden, Susan McKeown, Mick Moloney, Brian Conway, Gabriel Donohue and Robbie O'Connell.
Irish Music magazine called it, "A tour de force... impeccably researched folk music with a big Irish heart..." Dirty Linen magazine wrote, "Milner is a compelling storyteller in song... a powerful narrative singer" and Time Out New York called him "A folksinger's folksinger".
His classic collection of 150 Irish and British folk songs, The Bonnie Bunch of Roses, was published by Oak in 1983.
While he sang, he also worked straight jobs, including 32 years within the airline industry, and shorter stints as a ranger in the National Park Service and a cartographer at the U.S. Census Bureau.