CALGARY — This year Quebec guitarist Steve Hill won four Maple Blues Awards in the following categories: Electric Guitar, Guitarist, Recording /Producer and Entertainer. To top it off, he won a 2015 Juno for Blues Album of the Year. Not too shabby, and a big boost for a veteran player whose career has seen better days.
Speaking from his home studio in Montreal, I ask Hill if he’s still basking in the afterglow of his Juno win. “Oh man, I’m looking at it right now. It really helped,” he says. “It’s a Juno! I’ve one a lot of awards, but a Juno is quite a big thing. I’m still psyched about that.”
Before the Juno fame, who was Steve Hill and where did he come from?
“I’ve done many things,” replies Hill. “Started playing at 16 and was doing it as a profession at 18. Put my first album out at 20 in 1997 and eight since then. I’ve done blues rock, stoner rock, country, I’ve done a lot of things. A lot of things here in Quebec.”
Steve Hill blows that notion to bits, with this telling excerpt from his press release bio: “throughout his lengthy and intense shows, Hill performs standing up while singing and playing guitar, with his feet playing bass drum, snare drum, hi-hats and with a drum stick fused to the head of his trusty guitar, any other percussion within reach. With roots in blues, rock and a little bit of country, Hill performs his original songs, blues classics and quite often raucous renditions of Jimi Hendrix tunes.”
In My Record Collection, we dig down to the bottom of musicians’ souls to find out what the most treasured parts of their record collection are. This week, it’s the turn of Steve Hill, award-wielding Canadian singer and blues guitar great whose latest, Solo Recordings Volume 2, is now available. Let’s see what he picks out…
Montreal guitar hero Steve Hill is set to head out for a one-man band Canadian tour this summer and will be making a stop at Lorenzo’s Café June 24.
The tour is in support of his acclaimed multiple award winning release Solo Recordings Volume 2.
Hill is clearly at home on the stage, inviting audiences to catch a glimpse of his musical madness in the form of blues and rock ‘n’ roll.
Throughout his lengthy and intense shows, he performs standing up while singing and playing guitar, with his feet playing bass drum, snare drum, hi-hats and, with a drum stick fused to the head of his trusty guitar, any other percussion within reach.
Montreal’s guitar hero Steve Hill is set to head out for a one-man band Canadian tour this summer and will make a stop in Swift Current on June 19 as part of the Long Days Night Festival.
The tour is in support of his acclaimed multiple award-winning release Solo Recordings Volume 2. When it comes to one-man bands, guitarist and singer extraordinaire Hill has no limits.
Throughout his lengthy and intense shows, Hill performs standing up while singing and playing guitar, with his feet playing bass drum, snare drum, hi-hats and, with a drum stick fused to the head of his trusty guitar, any other percussion within reach.
With roots in blues, rock and a little bit of country, Hill performs his original songs, blues classics and quite often raucous renditions of Jimi Hendrix tunes.
Juno-winning blues guitarist Steve Hill was fascinated by King at an early age.
The Montreal native recalls appreciating King even before he started to learn guitar — and then snatching up his records with enthusiastic abandon once he did, at age 14.
It must have felt like a dream, then, when Hill actually got to open for his hero in his hometown at the then-Molson Centre in 2001.
“He was the nicest guy you could think of,” said Hill, who won four awards at this year’s Maple Blues Awards.
“I’ve done shows with a lot of … big names, and B.B. King was the nicest guy.”
Hill recalls chatting with King about music, but also receiving some level-headed personal advice.
Part acrobat, part juggling multi-instrumentalist.
Add vocals, original songs, wrap it up in a blues-rock package and it’s become Steve Hill’s formal for success. Again.
Necessity really is the mother of invention — or in Hill’s case, re-invention. After more than two decades in the music business, Hill won his first Juno award a couple of weeks ago in Hamilton for blues album of the year.
It capped four Maple Blues Awards Hill received in January for electric act of the year, guitarist of the year, recording/producer of the year and entertainer of the year.
All of the 2015 awards were for the same album, Solo Recordings Volume 2, Hill’s eighth recording.
“I never really thought it would work that well. I guess people dig it,” said Hill, who brings his one-man-band show to Barrie this weekend. “I made a good living after my first couple of records then I really got the blues. Had eight hard years.
“When I did Volume 1, I had to come up with something or get a day job,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know now to do anything else. I owned a studio, so I went down to the basement and started recording and it’s worked.”
STEVE HILL just won the Juno for Blues Album Of The Year and has probably every Blues award this country can offer. Why we don’t know more about this guy?! Unfortunately the blues are still very much off the radar but guys like Steve reminds us how real and authentic music can be. He’s been recording and touring for twenty years including gigs with ZZ Top, BB King, Ray Charles & Jimmie Vaughan to mention a few and has played at the most prestigious blues festivals around the globe. Beside his unique feel, Hill has a unique playing style, not only singing and playing guitar but also bass drum, hi-hat, shakers and whatever he can do with his feet and whatever he can attach to his guitar. Its authentic – not a gimmick.
The big winner at this year’s Maple Blues Awards, meanwhile, was Canadian guitarist and singer Steve Hill, who took home awards for entertainer, guitarist, electric act, and recording of the year for his Solo Recordings Vol. 2. We never got the chance to hear Hill’s Solo Recordings Vol. 1 (winner of the best self-produced album honor at the 2013 International Blues Challenge) – or, for that matter, the four-track EP that came in between, entitled, fittingly enough, Solo Recordings Vol. 1 1/2 – but you can bet we’ll be checking them both out soon after hearing all that Hill has to offer on Vol. 2, which, like its predecessor, has also been nominated for a Juno Award (the Canadian version of the Grammy Awards).
