Award-winning and critically acclaimed Canadian blues rock one-man band, guitarist and singer/songwriter Steve Hill’s new studio album, Hanging On A String, is out now on No Label Records, and so too the title track as his latest single.
‘Hanging on a String’ is about resilience in the face of adversity, cheating death, and moving on no matter what. Available here you can check out the video here at RAMzine.
Hill’s signature one-man band kick drum powers this stomping boogie with some prickly shards of brittle guitar splintering hither and yon across the broad width of this fearsome blues rock single.
“I’ve been a touring musician for thirty years,” reflected Hill. “I have experienced too many accidents and bumps in the road to remember all of them, but I remember a few. Car crashes, waking up in a house on fire, a plane crash, broken ribs, a broken hand and a broken heart. So far, it’s been quite the trip and I’m looking forward to the rest of it because it’s all worth it. For two hours when I’m on stage I can make the crowd forget about their worries and that makes me happy. That’s my job and I love it to death.”
If follows previous single ‘Devil’s Handyman’ that is about an all-too-common story in the world of rock and roll – Addiction. The narrator is the dealer, talking to his clients, acting like a comforting friend at first and gradually taking control over his life. It starts with the line, “Hey there, buddy, good to see you again,” and ends with, “I’ll be there until you start to lose your soul and fall apart.”
The music video for ‘Devil’s Handyman‘ was directed by Mat Lucas and shot at Studio 606. The shooting of the performance where Hill is playing guitar and drums, is the actual recording of the take that was used on the album, on the first day of recording, January 8, 2024.
There’s a pretty cool opening to the video; the buzz of feedback announces a guitar’s primed for action and panning in on Hill’s boots as they kick start his bass drum clueing us in this is a real one-man rock band. From thereon, while the camera closes in on his face, Hill takes us through a road less well travelled aurally. It’s a blues route for sure but one taken metaphorically as if passing along rusting, long-disused train tracks yet still leading to that proverbial crossroads where deals are made and lost by all. His guitar more noise rock, his voice a mournful but precise deep alt.rock narrative. Moody for sure.
Recorded in Los Angeles at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606, produced by 10 times Grammy winner Darrell Thorp (Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Paul McCartney) and mastered by six times Grammy winner Michael Romanowski, Steve Hill’s latest album is said to be as close to the heart as you can get. Decades of dedication to the lifestyle of a working musician have shaped him and his craft, and his new batch of songs are based on his own successes and failures and the life lessons he’s learned from them.
Hill has always loved concept albums. Even though the songs on Hanging On A String weren’t written with a concept in mind, when you put them all together, it feels like a concept album, set in a dystopian world where music is the only salvation.
The funny thing is that it’s not set in the distant future, it’s right here and now, and the hero is not a made-up character, it’s just Hill doing what he’s been doing for decades. Its themes are both very personal and universal. It’s about a one-man blues-rock band trying to make a living and dealing with accidents and bumps in the road and forging ahead no matter what, it’s about the life of a musician as it gets harder to tour in these post-pandemic times, having to deal with new challenges like being replaced by artificial intelligence.
The album starts with the line “Woke up in a house on fire” and the conception of the album started with that line. Hill had just finished a tour in Western Canada and was sleeping in a friend’s basement when he woke up surrounded by smoke. Like the song goes, “I got my buddy out of there. Good thing I generally have a hard time sleeping…”
He then went to the airport and before taking off, posted a photo of him on his socials, with these words: Woke up in a house on fire. His buddy Brian Laudenslager who owns the Lauten Audio microphone company wrote back, “Man, that’s a good line for a song!” to which Hill agreed! Laudenslager had been telling him to record in Los Angeles for years. “He had hired me in the past to do demos of his microphones at events like the NAMM show and other industry events,” said Hill. “His good friend, 10 times Grammy winner Darrell Thorp, was the sound engineer whenever I did those shows.”
A few days and conversations later, Brian had booked Darrell and the Foo Fighter‘s Studio 606 (yes, the one with the classic Neve console that used to be at Sound City) to record his next album. He then had 90 days to write an album’s worth of material and learn how to play it live (he recorded every instrument at the same time in the studio)!
He spent five days a week in his home studio for three months crafting the songs and was ready to nail it all down. He flew to LA where his friend and songwriting partner Johnny Pilgrimpicked him up at the airport and 20 minutes later, they were hit by another car that ran a red light. This was his second car accident in less than a year, as he had previously totalled his van, fallen asleep at the wheel coming home from a gig nine months earlier, and miraculously survived a massive wreck that all witnesses said should have killed him.
He did his best to record with some broken ribs, but his injuries got the best of him and the producers decided to postpone the recording. He healed and perfected the songs for another three months and finally came back to 606 in January 2024, and this time nothing could stop him – With six days to record the album, and he did it in five! No more than three takes were ever needed and most of what you hear are first or second takes.
“I’ve never been prouder of anything I’ve done in all my life,” said Hill. “This is the music I’ve been wanting to do and never thought I could ever perform that as a one-man band. Raw, in your face and straight to the point. This record is about perseverance, resilience in the face of adversity and my never-ending love for guitar music.”
Over the past 30 years, Steve Hill has gone from being a teenager backing up some of the biggest acts in his native Quebec, to becoming a bandleader in his 20s, to solo artist, to writer, performer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, to one-man band extraordinaire; following his own path for most of his life.
That path has brought him Juno Awards and Maple Blues Awards along with accolades from the biggest guitar magazines on the planet. A incredibly busy man, who’s experienced more than his share of ups and downs, but, apparently, we haven’t heard the best of it yet, his latest album is as close to the heart as you can get. Decades of dedication to the lifestyle of a working musician have shaped him and his craft, and Hill’s new batch of songs are based on his own successes and failures and the life lessons he’s learned from them.
Tracks featured on Hanging On A String are: ‘Hanging On A String’, ‘Devil’s Handyman’, ‘Show Ya’, ‘World Gone Insane’, ‘Maggie’, ‘You Know Who’, ‘Turned To Dust’ and ‘When The Music’s Over’. You can order it here. “I truly believe this to be my best work so far and I hope you enjoy it, too,” said Hill.
‘World Gone Insane’ came out as a single last month, and is still available here, while you can also check out the official music video here at RAMzine.
Slow angry guitar screams out until Hill’s bass drum hits the pedal in double time for a raw blues rocking rage of a number that’s like Motorhead getting it on with Savoy Brown with an MC5 attitude fit for the modern age. Noise rock with a message. And that video, yeah, those who’ve been lucky enough to see the man live will tell you that’s impressively really how the man performs.
