ALBUM:
Gravity…and other things that keep you down to Earth
TAYLOR USED:
815-CE
SONG CLIPS:
Serious Crime
28k | 56K
Hold That Thought
28k | 56K
CONTACT INFO:
BHP Recordings
P.O. Box 120603
Nashville, TN 37212
Web:
www. byron hill music .com
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After 21 years as a Nashville songwriter, Byron Hill decided to record his own dang album
(and in his liner notes thanks his fellow staff writers for not snickering). Hill's tunes
have been recorded by such household names as Ray Charles, Kenny Rogers ("Someone Must Feel
Like a Fool Tonight"), Alabama ("Born Country"), Randy Travis, Doc Watson, George Strait
("Fool Hearted Memory"), Asleep at the Wheel ("Keeping Me Up Nights"), Johnny Lee ("Pickin'
Up Strangers"), Sammy Kershaw ("Politics, Religion and Her"), Anne Murray ("Over You"),
George Jones ("High Tech Redneck", and Tracy Byrd ("Lifestyles of the Not So Rich and
Famous"). The list literally goes on and on.
Gravity…and other things that keep you down to Earth is a wonderfully warm, pure, organic
acoustic "unplugged"country album that eschews slick, pop-in-country-clothing production
layers in favor of the mellow, woody richness of acoustic guitar, upright acoustic bass,
fiddle, mandolin, dobro, and harmonica. No drums are used; percussive sounds abound in
subtler form, in the natural hand slaps against wood and across strings. Hill's melodic
baritone sounds utterly natural, relaxed and timeless, dovetailing smoothly into the
instrumentation, giving each sweet melody a wholeness, an eavesdropping intimacy, that
sounds as if the band was playing live. Hill also happens to be surrounded musically by
some of Nashville's leading lights: B. James Lowry (acoustic guitar, co-producer), ace
bassist David Hungate (founding member of the band Toto); legendary pedal steel/dobroist
Sonny Garrish; mandolinist and fiddle player Aubrey Haynie (nominated for Bluegrass Music
Association 1998 Fiddle Player of the Year); and Hohner harpmeister Jelly Roll Johnson.
These boys all know how to put a shine on a song with one-take chops an intuitive feel.
Gravity…distills away the charicatured elements of country music that have misinformed so
many people, and celebrates the art of writing simple, compelling songs.
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