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Posted on Blues In Britain – Interview and album review

It’s either slightly perverse or an act of inspired genius when being in a top notch studio (in this case Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 in Los Angeles) to forsake the opportunity to take advantage of the facility to multitrack different instruments, and plump instead to record live as a one-man band. But this is exactly what Steve Hill has done with his latest release and, indeed, it’s a massively impressive achievement to have created such a sonically rich sound with just a guitar and foot operated drum pedals played simultaneously.

Regardless of how they were recorded, these are a bunch of really strong songs with lyrics that have real depth. Kicking off with the raunchy blues riffing of the title track, with its terse, rasping solo lines and powerful vocals, the mix is designed to reach the eardrums with maximum impact. ‘The Devil’s Handyman’ is written from the perspective of a drug dealer with waspy lines like, “I know where to get the pills, l’l stick it on your bill,” adorned with woozy, sinister slide playing that is terrific.

‘Show Ya’ is a pounding four beats to the bar autobiographical romp that’s a lot of fun, whilst ‘World Gone Insane’ has a haunting, ominous feel introduced with a reverberating three note riff before it picks up the pace. There is a hypnotically compelling feel to these tracks that combine energy with melodic content in a way that’s distinctively memorable.

Order on www.bluesinbritain.org

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Posted on Maximum Volume Music – HANGING BY A STRING Review

Steve Hill is a phenomenon. What do you think a solo artist should sound like? Maybe a weather-beaten folkie? A social commentator like Billy Bragg? Perhaps one of those Joseph Arthurs types, all effects, loops, and wizardry?

I’ll see all that and raise you the rawest blues there is. A force of nature. And an absolutely glorious songwriter.

I don’t know how he does it. What’s more, I couldn’t care less. I’m sticking to my belief that he found Robert Johnson’s solo at a car boot sale organised by Beelzebub himself and imbibed it whole.

I mean, how else, in all good conscience, do you explain the primal sounds on the title track? “This rockin’ and rollin’ got me hanging on a string,” he sings. It’s a guitar string. I’m certain of it.

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Posted on Liverpool Sound & Vision – Hanging on a String Album Review

It may seem flippant to suggest, for some it will be a preposterous notion, but it arguably a truth that only art can save the world, or at least civilisation as far as humanity is concerned, and whilst we are at a precipice of Time, hanging not just by a thread, but by our fingernails on collective sanity and our anger, we have the opportunity to enthuse others to a place where art in all its forms connects in ways that other areas of life are afraid to tap into.

Our house is on fire, our world has been mistreated to the point where several sessions with a therapist wouldn’t even scratch the surface of the multiple traumas it has faced, and yet art, taking a moment to breathe and not be forced to keep digging in the dirt, is more than Hanging On A String, it is the rope on which we can climb to safety to a higher level.

The heavy blues has seen many heroes, but Steve Hill has been one to exemplify the genre’s grassroots and its originality, its piercing outlook, and its anger, the damage to which has often held the music back and yet in the musician’s latest release, Hanging On A String, the sense of passionate fury is overwhelmingly cool.

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Posted on Steve Hill releases new single “Devil’s Handyman.”

Produced at Studio 606 in Los Angeles, “Devil’s Handyman” is the second single from Steve Hill’s highly anticipated upcoming album Hanging On A String. The new single is as dark and moody as can be.

It’s released by No Label Records on Friday, October 4th and is available on all streaming platforms from https://lnk.to/HillDevil .

Recorded live off the floor, the new album is destined to impress. Germany’s Guitar Magazine says, “Steve Hill is the most impressive one-man band on the planet… it’s hard to believe that what you’re hearing is only one guy.”

“Devil’s Handyman” is about an all-too-common story in the world of rock and roll—addiction. The narrator is the dealer, talking to his clients, acting like a comforting friend at first and gradually taking control over his life. It starts with the line, “Hey there, buddy, good to see you again,” and ends with, “I’ll be there until you start to lose your soul and fall apart.”

The music video for “Devil’s Handyman” was directed by Mat Lucas and shot at Studio 606. The shooting of the performance where Steve is playing guitar and drums is the actual recording of the take that was used on the album on the first day of recording, January 8, 2024.

Read full review on Rock the joint Magazine

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Posted on Steve Hill is the Devil’s Handyman

Award-winning and critically acclaimed Canadian blues rock one-man band, guitarist and singer/songwriter Steve Hill will release his new studio album, Hanging On A String, Friday 1st November, through No Label Records.

Ahead of that, and out via streaming platforms now is his new single, ‘Devil’s Handyman’ – Available on all streaming platforms from here, you can check out the accompanying video here at RAMzine.

‘Devil’s Handyman’ is about an all-too-common story in the world of rock and roll – Addiction. The narrator is the dealer, talking to his clients, acting like a comforting friend at first and gradually taking control over his life. It starts with the line, “Hey there, buddy, good to see you again,” and ends with, “I’ll be there until you start to lose your soul and fall apart.”

The music video for ‘Devil’s Handyman‘ was directed by Mat Lucas and shot at Studio 606. The shooting of the performance where Hill is playing guitar and drums, is the actual recording of the take that was used on the album, on the first day of recording, January 8, 2024.

There’s a pretty cool opening to the video; the buzz of feedback announces a guitar’s primed for action and panning in on Hill’s boots as they kick start his bass drum clueing us in this is a real one-man rock band. From thereon, while the camera closes in on his face, Hill takes us through a road less well travelled aurally. It’s a blues route for sure but one taken metaphorically as if passing along rusting, long-disused train tracks yet still leading to that proverbial crossroads where deals are made and lost by all. His guitar more noise rock, his voice a mournful but precise deep alt.rock narrative. Moody for sure.

Recorded in Los Angeles at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606, produced by 10 times Grammy winner Darrell Thorp (Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Paul McCartney) and mastered by six times Grammy winner Michael Romanowski, Steve Hill’s latest album is said to be as close to the heart as you can get. Decades of dedication to the lifestyle of a working musician have shaped him and his craft, and his new batch of songs are based on his own successes and failures and the life lessons he’s learned from them.

Read full review on RamZine >

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Posted on Dear Illusion Review on Rock & Blues Muse

Juno Award-winning multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and one-man-band Steve Hill rocks out all over his new record Dear Illusion.

The set is out on No Label Records and finds the unstoppable Hill getting down on a fresh set of material that was originally supposed to come out in April of 2020 but Covid put a stop to that. The silver lining to this particular cloud is that Hill was able to keep working on the album, refining it into the state it’s in now. Hill is a beyond-talented guitarist, singer, drummer, harmonica player, songwriter, and producer with a sound and vision unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

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Posted on Dear Illusion review on Maximum Volume Music

I’ve been a Steve Hill fan for years, but I’ve only seen him once. Back in the spring of 2018 the Ontario native opened for King King. Upon watching his show I wrote on these pages: “Steve Hill is better than good. He’s something more like a force of nature. Resistance at this point is futile. In a year everyone will claim they were on board all along, so you might as well be now.”

Which would have been fine but the pandemic rather stalled things, but we’re back on track now with “Dear Illusion”, but – and I hope you were paying attention – there’s a couple of things related to that intro that I need to catch you up on. First what Hill describes as “a version” of the record was completed in February 2020. Yep. So he didn’t release it, instead changed it.

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Posted on Dear Illusion review on Fabrications HQ

Canadian musician Steve Hill has, over the last ten years, made a multiple Maple and Juno award winning name for himself as a one-man-blues-rock-band via his multi-instrumentation solo shows, three acclaimed & notable Solo Recordings albums and a live release that captured the essence and energy of his performances.

More lately however a pseudo-cinematic side of Steve Hill was heard on 2021’s Desert Trip, an acoustic/ California country influenced album inspired by the Desert Trip Festival of 2016, following which Hill rented a camper van to criss-cross California, camping (and writing) in the natural wilds of places such as Death Valley, Big Sur and Yosemite.

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Posted on Dear Illusion review on Velvet Thunder

There’s no doubt about it, watching Steve Hill play is mesmerising. Like most hot-shot axe-slingers, he started off playing guitar in a blues band at home in Canada, although he can get a tune or a rhythm out of almost anything that can be plucked, blown or hit. When he went solo, he went all the way, eventually jettisoning the band completely, going on stage and playing everything himself, literally. He has a separate pickup under the lower strings of his guitar, which routes through an octaver to a bass amp, so he thumbs the bass notes while picking the guitar at the same time. He plays a kick drum, a snare and a hi-hat with his feet, and plays another hi-hat and a crash cymbal with a drumstick fixed to his guitar headstock. Various other percussion instruments are fixed to parts of his kit or his body; a maraca, a tambourine, a can full of coins taped to his foot. Oh, and he has a harmonica frame round his neck too. He has released several CDs of this incredible solo work, but you still won’t believe it until you see it.

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