For most, a solo blues album would mean a pared-back performance, preferably performed on an acoustic guitar purchased well back in the last century. For Steve Hill, however, solo simply means there’s no one in the vicinity to slow him down and the results are often explosive. As a one-man-band on the road, Steve performs standing up, singing, playing the guitar and decimating his drum kit in the manner of a man possessed. In the studio, Steve simply unleashes his innermost demons, offering up a sound that sits somewhere between ZZ Top, Bob Dylan and the Allman brothers. Unlike a large number of two-piece acts who seem to want to sound like a solo artist, Steve Hill is a solo artist who sounds like an army on the road, and he rocks. An album with a pedigree, ‘Solo Recordings: Volume 1’ was nominated for a Juno Award, and won Album of the Year at the International Blues Awards whilst ‘Volume 2’ won the Juno Award. As it happens, ‘Volume 3’ has been out for well over a year in Hill’s native Canada, but now we get to catch up in the UK as it finally receives a belated, yet much deserved, release via No Label Recordings.
Steve kicks the record into gear with ‘Damned’, a heavy-as-hell blues-rocker with a southern drawl. With his guitar mired in a layer of distortion worthy of fellow Canadian Neil Young, Steve builds his riffs around a throbbing bass line and percussion that threatens to trigger an earthquake. That vibe carries over to the aptly titled ‘dangerous’, a track that pairs a molasses-thick riff with a serpentine groove that is irresistible. Steve calms things down a touch as he unleashes a bone-dry solo at the outset of the psychedelic ‘Still a fool & a rolling stone’. A stark, desert-blues, ‘still a fool…’ threatens to overwhelm the senses to the point that the acoustic ‘slowly slipping away’ comes as a considerable relief. Reminiscent of Neil’s solo excursions, it’s a beautiful song that evokes images of a slowly-setting sun over a lush green prairie. In contrast, ‘rhythm all over’ is a full-bore rocker that brings to mind the impossible groove of ZZ Top as it incites a riot, tables flying everywhere and fists pelting out of the haze of cigarette smoke and beer. The first half of the record concludes with ‘smoking hot machine’ (the album’s unofficial title?), a harmonica-drenched rampage that sees the broken bar of the previous song settled once more and Steve, bruised and battered, left playing amidst the wreckage of his stage.
The second half of the record has one hell of an act to follow, but fortunately the rippling acoustic beauty of ‘troubled times’ is up to the task. Steve stays in acoustic mode for the bright and breezy ‘Emily’ and the dark stomp of ‘Can’t take it with you’ almost comes as a surprise as a result. If there’s one song that really has no need of appearing as yet another cover version it’s ‘rollin and tumblin’ which, one might think, has been done to death over the years. Nonetheless, Steve approaches the track with the energy of a teenager discovering it for the first time and, just to make sure he has your attention, he neatly segues into ‘stop breaking down’, an inspired pairing that shifts the marker from forgettable to essential in one deft and unexpected manoeuvre. Summing up the entire modus operandi of the blues in one pithy song title, ‘going down the road feeling bad’ is as pretty a piece of acoustic guitar playing as you’re likely to hear all year. It leaves only the gloriously distorted stomp of ‘walking grave’ to see the album out on a high, Steven channelling Tom Waits and Mark Lannegan as he builds the track to an impressively climactic conclusion.
At the outset, Steve Hill’s idea of what it means to be a solo artist is clearly contrary to all laws of nature and music. Far from simplistic, the album initially threatens to overdo the overloaded valves and coruscating kick drum only for Steve to neatly turn the tables on his listener, detailing some wonderfully dusty blues and evoking the rich beauty of his native country with his acoustic guitar in the process. Throughout, it is easy to see just why Steve has built so solid a reputation and ‘Solo recordings volume 3’ is a masterclass in hard blues musicianship. 9
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