Robert Hill

Robert Hill's "Slide On Rye"
is now playing on this page.

"Hill's aggressive slide playing over a rough-and-ready backing track makes us want to slam down some moonshine and start a ballroom blitz. It's intense and relentless, and Hill's slide tone is fat, edgy and fabulous."
— Guitar Player magazine
June 2009

" While we’re talking about local musicians’ musicians, singersongwriter-guitarist Robert Hill has lived in New York for the past 20 years, but he grew up in North Little Rock and still draws on the state for inspiration. His excellent blues album My Corner (SOR, $12.97) — which features some fantastic acoustic guitar work as well as Hill’s crafty rootsy originals — has been in rotation in my car for a couple of months now.
(The CD’s packaging deserves a mention: Hill says the sepiatone photograph that adorns the front cover is of his father as a boy, circa 1930, outside a Hot Springs barbecue stand. The back cover photograph dates from the early 1900s; it’s of Hill’s grandfather in the doorway of his Pine Bluff advertising company.)"
— Jack Hill - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
(Aug 14, 2008)

"Rainbow Come Down On Me; Mix Myself a Perfect Dream."
I'd heard the opening track "My Corner" before I received this beautiful CD to review. I was struck by how the harmonica solo at the end of the song really managed to paint a picture of the narrator. When I heard that solo in my imagination I could see this lost and tired man dancing on a dark street, a bottle in his hand and his eyes turned towards the heavens. Oftentimes when songwriters attempt to tackle the lost characters in society they either over- dramatize or only brush the surface. Robert Hill puts flesh on the bones of society's underdogs in his songs. Whether he's writing about a tragic homeless guy, a simple country woman, or the children of Liberia, Hill shines light on the humanity of the characters in his songs, reminding us that we are all related. Listening to the CD I see the world through the characters' eyes and feel it through their hearts. The music and production never get in the way of the story, and there's an interesting mix of modern and old-timey sounds. Musically the songs incorporate influences from the entire range of this wonderfully colorful music called Americana. Hill's guitar, resonator, and harmonica playing shine without getting in the way of the songs, and the CD even includes two instrumentals "Smokestack," and "Forbidden Fruit," which we'll probably be hearing during the closing credits of a movie by this time next year. All around "My Corner" is an honest, hopeful, reckless adventure in what it is to be human. Stand-out tracks for me are "Blessed Dream," one of my favorite new songs in several years, "Smokestack," and the closing song "Washing Away."
— Philip Martin- Ark. Democrat-Gazette
"My Corner" CD review
(May 6, 2008)

Click here for more on Robert Hill and other performers from the next Coffee House.

http://www.roberthillband.com/photos.html