Juno-winning bluesman Steve Hill’s latest album is a desert trip
One of Canada’s most prolific guitarists, Steve Hill has been taking audiences along on a desert trip with his latest album, and single “Rain.” .
A multi-talented instrumentalist with a Juno and eight Maple Blues Awards to his credit 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 new release.
“In the fall of 2016, I went to California with some friends to attend the Desert Trip Festival in Coachella,” Steve recalled. “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 continued. “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,” he said. “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 revealed. “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, Steve has performed alongside Ray Charles, B.B. King, and ZZ Top and dabbled in every genre from rock to country and folk — all while fusing it with his first and foremost love: the blues.
Steve 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.
