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.
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.
For years this Canadian singer/guitarist was known for his blues rock one-man band antics. For latest album Dear Illusion he teamed up with a horn section, reaping this toe-tapping, 70s-fried earworm that fans of Whiskey Myers and The Sheepdogs should get a kick out of. “It took me a long time to finish,” says Steve. “I started working on it six years ago after the Trump election. It’s about alternate truth, but it’s also about social media and our addiction to it. It’s also about pretending that everything is alright when it’s not.”
With a solid grip on acoustic blues underneath and a consistent show of song crafting flair, Steve Hill’s current offering commands well deserved attention throughout the set. The Montreal-based guitarist’s muscular, measured vocals match well with a string of originals and collaborations marked by compelling moods and meaty lyrics.
Here is the latest album from a Canadian guitarist with enough awards to fill a bathtub. His last few records over 8 or so years have been one man band affairs, but Desert Trip is something different. Inspired by a trip in 2016 to the Desert Trip Festival in Coachella these songs are evocative and cinematic, as if they belong in a Clint Eastwood film.
One of Canada’s most prolific guitarists Steve Hill is taking audiences along on his Desert Trip with the release of his latest album, and single “Rain” — available now.
A multi-talented instrumentalist with a JUNO, eight Maple Blues Awards and well over 2,500 live concerts notched on his axe, it was a previous solo sojourn into the dusty, dusky wide open that would inspire and transpire into most of this year’s release.
“In the fall of 2016, I went to California with some friends to attend the Desert Trip Festival in Coachella,” Hill recalls. “I had an amazing time while I was there and decided to hang around LA a little longer.
“After a couple of days in the city, I felt an urge to move and a need to explore,” he continues. “I rented a camper van and criss-crossed the state for about three weeks.
“I bought a guitar, too, and wrote some tunes at night while camping in Death Valley, Big Sur, Yosemite, San Rafael, and many other wild places.
“The world has become a very different place since then,” Hill considers. “Somehow, though, these songs make more sense to me lately. They’re a journey through my state of mind at the time, and maybe a foretelling of the way I feel now.
“There’s a few vamped-up oldies on there as well,” he reveals. “It’s as if they had been written on the same trip… I hope they bring others a little joy and comfort, too, in these troubled times.”
Now 27 years and millions of streams into his storied career, Hill has performed alongside the likes of Ray Charles, B.B. King, and ZZ Top, has taken the stage with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphonic Orchestra, performed at some of the country’s biggest music festivals, and dabbled in every genre from rock, to country, to folk, and back — all while fusing it with his first and foremost love, the blues.
A multi-nominee across his previous releases, The One Man Blues Rock Band (2018), Solo Recordings, Vol.’s 1 (2012), 2 (2014), 3 (2016), The Damage Done (2009), Devil at My Heels (2007), and Domino (2007), Steve Hill has won a JUNO Award for Blues Album of the Year, the Memphis International Blues Challenge for Best Self-Produced CD, and eight Maple Blues Awards — including three Electric Act of the Year Awards, two Entertainer of the Year Awards, two Guitarist of the Year Awards, and an Album of the Year Award.
Long known for his extensive breadth of sonic skill, earlier this year his outfit Steve Hill & The Devil Horns released “All About The Love” — a rollicking musical mashup of 70s rock mixed with 60s gospel and soul.
