Al Hill
Nashville, Tennessee, United States | Established. Jan 01, 1993 | SELF
Music
Press
"One of the most exciting of the roots blues bands to ever come from Ann Arbor/Metro Detroit, pianist/guitarist/vocalist Hill has everything going his way. He has a clear, distinctive, soulful voice, his guitar or piano playing tasty and literate...Highly recommended for lovers of traditional horn fired, piano saturated blues, with no reservation." - All Music Guide
"Few cart along the sort of rich realness that saturates this longtime live fave. What separates pianist-guitarist Hill from the pack of pretenders is that Hill's swampy, swarthy boogie isn't just reverent interpretation--between the tangy, unaffected vocals, thick horns and fatty bottom end, the stuff is thick enough to taste. This 12-track debut disc, featuring seven stellar Hill compositions, is an engaging mesh of Memphis, New Orleans and Midwest--and one of the most sublime platters to emerge from these parts in recent memory." - Detroit Free Press
"..unaffected vocals and rolling keyboard...swings relentlessly..." - Living Blues Magazine
"Hill's hard-driving piano style crackles with the rolling shuffles, Cuban-inflected polyrhythms and syncopated, rhumba-boogie grooves of Crescent City masters Dr. John and Professor Longhair. The horn charts are tough but tasteful, and Hill's pliant, soulful vocals give a nod to Memphis masters Redding and Pickett." - Detroit News
"The 43-year-old bluesman unleashes the soul of his blues through smoky vocals and shuffling boogie piano, accented by understated guitar work and songwriting that's nothing short of heartland poetry." - Grand Rapids Press
"Al Hill's unique and powerful style is a superb blend of roots rock, thumpin' rhythm and blues, and heartfelt soul. His piano and vocal performances are outstanding." - Big City Blues Magazine
Discography
"Willie Mae", full length CD
"Big Valley Girl", full length CD by Hill & Dale
Photos
Bio
Al Hill is a Nashville-based singer, piano player and guitarist. Just back from Memphis where he won First Place awards for Best Solo/Duo Act and Best Solo Guitarist at the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge, he stylistically covers a wide swath of roots-rock, blues and soul music.
Since 2002 Al has been Music Director for 3-time Grammy nominee and the Blues Foundation's Best Soul Blues Female Artist of 2016, Bettye LaVette, performing throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, Japan and Australia. Bettye and Al have appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and Austin City Limits.
A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Al’s debut recording “Willie Mae” blended root-rock and soul and was voted “Best CD” at the Motor Cities Blues Awards in 1999. Al and his band won the “Best Unsigned Band” competition, held at Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago in 2000, and Al was voted “Outstanding Blues Artist” at the Motor City Music Awards in 2005. In 2008 Al was inspired to move south, and now calls Nashville home.
Al's latest release is "Big Valley Girl", a collaboration with his long-time pal L.A. guitarist, and Lee Rocker sideman Brophy Dale.
When not touring with Bettye, Al records and performs with a band, as a solo act, and accompanying his wife Whit Hill in her alt-folk-country band The Postcards, releasing “We Are Here” in 2003, “Farsighted” three years later, and “I Dug It Up” in fall of 2015.
Other artists Al has worked with include Delbert McClinton, T. Graham Brown, Johnny Johnson, Detroit blues luminaries Johnnie Bassett, Alberta Adams and Sir Mack Rice, Wanda Jackson, Mike Farris, Lazy Lester, Marva Wright, Kermit Ruffins and Sleepy LaBeef.
Band Members
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