Robert Hill - Guitar, vocals, harmonica, gravy
Robert Hill was born at a very early age, in North Little Rock, ( a.k.a., "Dogtown" ), Arkansas. As the story goes, whenever someone from the city of Little Rock, ( on the other side of the Arkansas River ), had something they wanted to get rid of - say, a car, a dog, a body, they would drive it over the river to the North Little Rock side and dump it. As a result of people dumping, particularly dogs, the town got the distinguished nickname of "Dogtown". It made the people proud.
Hill played in numerous memorable and forgettable bands around Arkansas. A couple of note, were The RPMS and The Blue Mambas. The members of The RPMS quit their day jobs, and moved to a log cabin in the Ozark mountains, ( in the northern part of the state ), to persue their musical vision and the local female population. Living on a huge tub of peanut butter and mint tea, ( which they gathered from the local woods ), the band honed their skills, and became well-known, in spite of themselves. They were eventually "coaxed" into leaving their backwoods oasis, by locals who would leave human-like effigies hanging from trees on the dirt road leading up to the cabin - usually with "creative" slogans scrawled on a board and hung around the dummies' necks. Think "Deliverance", but without the big budget...These were playful times.
Another memorable band Hill played with in "The Natural State", was The Blue Mambas. "The Mambas are one of the premier rockin'-blues party bands of all eternity", said local rag, "The Altered Hog".
The Mambas became quite popular in the Little Rock area, not only with music lovers, but with local single and married women as well. They were also well recieved by the local chapters of The Bandidos and The Hell's Angels. The Mambas were the unofficial house band for one of the most popular, local biker bars - and I'm not talking "Y-M-C-A". Mambas+Alcohol+Rival Gangs always made for a heady mix at the gigs- the local cops would often join in the fray, and take the festivities to a whole other level. This was what the band called, "Getting Mambasized!" The Mambas actually played a couple of roadhouses that had chickenwire around the stage, ala The Blues Brothers movie. And yes, that was a live baboon sitting in the cab of a pickup truck outside one of those roadhouses. And no, it wasn't wearing a wig.You can't make this kind of stuff up, folks- it happened all the time. It also made for some interesting songs. Check out "Rose City"- every town's got one.
Whether he was " asked" to leave the state by local officials, or left on his own accord, Hill moved to New York City, where he played with local NYC band, The Bluesicians, for many years into the early '90's, sharing the stage with numerous national acts, and drunks of all ages. In the early '90's, he formed the first incarnation of the Robert Hill Band, performing exclusively his own material, and released the cleverly-titled debut cd, "Robert Hill", to excellent reviews.
This eventually led to the stripped-down acoustic power-duo of just Hill and "Drummer To The Stars", Jerry Krenach. This bare-bones duo wreaked havoc around the NYC metro area for a number of years, until they were joined by Mark "Low Yo-Yo" Murphy on upright bass.
This potent power-trio thus began a musical odyssey from which they've never fully recovered.
Hill says many of the songs are autobiograghical, just not necessarily about him.
Recently joined by Art,"The Artist formerly known as Art", Labriola on keyboards, accordian and pedal steel, and the smouldering Joanne Lediger on vocals, the band has been likened to a musical volcano. Think Mount St. Helens, but a lot more fun.
The section of the country Hill grew up in possesses a unique gumbo of musical styles: urban and deep Delta blues, bluegrass, oldtime country, zydeco, ragtime, cowpunk, gospel, even a polka or two in spots. When you mix it all together, they just call it Rock and Roll. Johnny Cash was born there - what else needs to be said?
Credits:
The RHB has opened for Chris Smither, Levon Helm (The Band), John McEuen (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), Kim Simmonds (Savoy Brown),The Tony Trischka Band, Rick Danko (The Band), Rory Block, Debbie Davies, and numerous others.
Hill’s song, "Long Rain", ran in the Smirnoff Ice commercial, "Rope", which aired during the 2002 Super Bowl game.
Hill’s Instrumental, "Slide On Rye", is currently being used in an episode of the TV series, Queer Eye For The Straight Guy.
Second place winner in the 1st Annual National Slide Guitar Festival, Acoustic Competition, held in Brevard, NC, August 1997. This was a national competition.
Hill’s instrumental, "Slide On Rye", is the theme song for Blue Country, a weekly radio show broadcast live on 101 FM, Logan City, Queensland, Australia every Tuesday night from 10 pm to 12am. (http://members.tripod.com/blue_country/ )
Certificates of Achievement: 1st Place Winner, 2005 Unisong International Songwriting Contest,AAA/Americana category for his song; "My Corner".
2006 & 2005 Semifinalist ISC Songwriting Contest,
1999 & 1997 UNISONG International Song Contest,
1996 BILLBOARD Song Contest
Composed soundtrack for award winning PBS Film Documentary, "BURLEY"- the story of a North Carolina tobacco farmer.