GRAVITY...and other things that keep you down to Earth by Byron Hill

Hill excels at a kind of lyrical enjambment that causes songs to become entangled in one's mind..." - Clarissa Sansone, Country Standard Time, 2/00.

"Byron Hill's new album is the perfect example of finely crafted songs possessing wit, character and tunefulness presented with excellent musicianship and style. Highly recommended!" - Sonny Thomas, Fiddle & Bow, Winston-Salem, NC, 3/00.

"His affinity for those character songs shows....'Took Her To The Moon' is a good example....Hill's understated vocals accompanied by spare acoustic instrumentation bring out the tongue-in-cheek humor of the song." - George Olsen, Max Magazine, Jacksonville, NC, 3/00.

"With a voice sounding like a cross between Guy Clark and Don Williams at their peak, Byron Hill is certainly a welcome addition to the singer/songwriter scene." - Jim Marshall, British Country Music Association (BCMA) Magazine, 4/00.

"...one of the finest recordings we've played this year..." -Lluis Sala, La Diligencia, Ona Catalana, Girona, SPAIN, 4/00

"Thank you so much for the "Gravity" CD....Byron's wonderful melodies and voice will easily find a place on my play-list". - Michel PENARD, Radio ISA, Lhuis, FRANCE, 4/00

"That Hill has elected not to have any percussion and has used a standup bass over the fretted kind...in other words,...an unplugged set...has given the album an intimate feel, reinforced by Hill's warm, gentle vocals, and one almost feels as if attending a guitar pull or a songwriter's night." -Jon Philibert, Country Music People Magazine (UK), May 2000.

"Wow! This is some of the best songwriting I've heard. While this is Byron Hill's first album as a singer, he's been a songwriter for years and his talent and skill are amply demonstrated in Gravity ... and other things that keep you down to Earth, set off by his warm resonant voice." -Amanda Fisher, Rambles, Cultural Arts Magazine

"Throughout this excellent disc..Hill's warm and fuzzy voice enriches the melodies and brings home the content of each song in near-perfect fashion. This is definitely a deserted island disc, and one that is getting increasing difficult to remove from the CD player." -Michael Clark, The Loafer, Kingsport, TN

"...the kind of distinctive country talent that Nashville should be (but sadly, is not) rushing to record." -John Lupton, Sing Out!

"Byron´s smooth baritone with a bit of a rough edge is naturally expressive and beautiful, and a pleasure to listen to. Singing harmonies as well is like double fudge ice cream with nuts and swirls - double the pleasure." -Guntram Gudowius, Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange

"Byron Hill is a Nashville songwriter who has been covered by a "who's who" of country artists. It's no wonder his first album is full of solidly crafted songs that are as warm and melodic as they are enjoyable." -JLe, Dirty Linen

"This is a good Cd that really deserves to be in every country fans collection." - Smålands COUNTRY CLUB (Newspaper) Vimmerby, SWEDEN, 2001, by Christer Sjöblad

"Hill's distinct tenor provides rich vocals on the album, dominated by slow songs and acoustic guitar. It has a simple appeal, and Hill's percussion-free tunes are qualified to be soothing bedtime favorites." - THE DAILY TARHEEL, University of North Carolina, Carmen Woodruff-Staff Writer

CREDITS:

Guest musicians on the album are: B. James Lowry (Acoustic Guitar & Co-producer) who's many past recording credits include Faith Hill, Asleep At The Wheel, Mark Chesnutt, Leann Rimes, Tim McGraw, Duane Eddy, Juice Newton, Martina McBride, Olivia Newton-John, Reba McEntire, and Gary Allan; David Hungate (Upright Bass) the former founding member of the Los Angeles band Toto and leading Nashville bassist with credits that include Brooks & Dunn, Ricky Skaggs, Neil Diamond, Randy Travis, Joe Cocker, George Strait, Linda Ronstadt, Rodney Crowell, and The Horse Whisperer soundtrack LP; Sonny Garrish (Dobro) the legendary pedal steel/dobroist who has played on decades of albums by Willie Nelson, EmmyLou Harris, Leon Russell, Faith Hill, Randy Travis, Ricky Skaggs, Sammy Kershaw, The Judds, George Strait, and Merle Haggard; Aubrey Haynie (Fiddle & Mandolin) the Sugar Hill Records artist who was nominated for Bluegrass Music Association 1998 Fiddle Player Of The Year, and played on recordings by Shania Twain, Randy Travis, Pam Tillis, Mark Wills, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Lonesome River Band; and the very cool Jelly Roll Johnson (Harmonica) who's sack full of Hohners have graced the albums of Alabama, Ricky Scaggs, The Judds, BB King, Alison Krauss, Randy Travis, Kenny Rogers, Guy Clark, Tim McGraw, Marty Stuart, Shania Twain, Don Williams, and Trisha Yearwood.

BIO:

Byron Hill is from Winston-Salem, NC. When he was about 10 years old, his parents bought him his first guitar, a Kay arch top. His father then began teaching him some old Carter Family songs. Byron's parents exposed him to many types of music around the home, from his mother's old scratchy 78's of Perry Como, Tex Williams, and Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, to his father's liking for Tennessee Ernie Ford, Roger Miller, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Flatt and Scruggs, and Ray Charles. Later, a neighbor named Paul Huff, gave Byron an introduction to some basic 'Rock and Roll' chords and riffs on the guitar. When Byron was about 16 years old his dad pointed out to him a Kris Kristofferson song ("Sunday Morning Coming Down") on Johnny Cash's "The Johnny Cash Show" album. Byron recalls....."That's the song that got me interested in songwriting".

In college at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, he began hanging out with singer/songwriters and eventually began to perform around the area at clubs, at ski resorts and at the college "coffee house". During his freshman year he became friends with fellow dorm-mate Liston Smith, who introduced Byron to fingerpick-style guitar playing and the music of Doc Watson. In 1972 Byron teamed up with Gene Wooten for a while and performed bluegrass around the Boone, NC area, including a regular gig at the Four Seasons Hotel at Beech Mountain (Gene Wooten later became one of Nashville's leading dobro players). By 1971, Byron was already writing songs, but only beginning to learn the craft.

"Dad and I seemed to always connect with great songs. I remember in the winter of 1973, I had dropped out of college for a while, and went to work at the Hanes Dye & Finishing Factory, a huge, cavernous post Civil War era textile mill in my hometown. Early one very cold and dark winter morning, Dad was driving me to work. We had the radio on. A new recording by Charlie Rich came on. It was "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World". I think both of us reached for the volume knob at the same time to turn it up. I had never heard such a lush and haunting melody on Country radio. It absolutely gave us both goose-bumps. What a great song! For some reason I've always remembered that moment. Great songs have always effected me that way...I can always remember where I was the first time I heard them."

"About 1974, in Winston-Salem, I was in a little trio called Red Cloud, which was me on guitar and vocals, Myra Holder on vocals and percussion instruments, and Bruce Doub on bass. We were locally popular at a couple of clubs (Alicia's Cafe in Greensboro, and The Town lounge in Winston-Salem), but we played a lot of obscure and original material, and the money was very limited. Around the same time I was doing the ol' 'mail my songs to Nashville' thing to almost any publishers who were mentioned in 'Songwriter Magazine'." (Note that this was an earlier 'Songwriter Magazine' published in California by Flip Black, and not the one that is popular now). In 1975, after an especially positive response from publisher Jonathan Stone of ATV Music, Byron began making regular trips to Nashville. Jonathan called Byron in 1977 suggesting that he move to Nashville and consider a tape-copy job at ATV Music, if it became available. Other people in Nashville encouraged the move including Dianne Petty (then with ABC Music), David Conrad (then with Pi-Gem Music), Tony Brown (who had been on the road with Elvis and was hanging around Norbert Putnam's Danor Music), Merlin Littlefield (at ASCAP), and Mae Axton. Byron moved to Nashville in April of 1978. After working at ATV for a couple of weeks for free, he landed the job as a 'tape copy boy', taking the place of Jake Mayer who had finally written his way out of the job with the Charlie Rich single 'I Still Believe In Love'. It was a great opportunity for Byron to perfect his songwriting. "I wanted to write songs that were commercial but I saw quickly that I didn't really have a total grasp of it. I eventually hooked up with other writers including Roger Bowling (writer of "Lucille", "Blanket On The Ground", and "Coward Of The County"). Roger put a lot of tough love on me and shamed me into writing better songs. All the sudden, the nearly 200 songs I had brought with me to Nashville seemed nearly worthless." he says. "The bar was raised for me. The catalog at ATV Nashville was full of gems, and lots of great writers were associated with the earliest ATV Nashville stuff....Billy Joe Shaver, Bobby Bare, Charlie Williams, Shel Silverstein, Chuck Howard, Sr., Larry Butler, Jan Crutchfield, Frank Dycus, Roger Murrah, and many more. What a way to go to school! While I was the tape copy guy, Jonathan Stone hooked me up with my first professional-level collaborator, Dennis Knutson, a great writer and someone I had lots of fun with. I also remember Billy Joe Shaver bringing his young son into my tape room for me to record his work tapes. It was at the old 45 Music Square West office. My tape copy room was in the front corner office on the ground level. We set up a couple of mics in the room and went straight to 2-track. Billy Joe's son was a great guitarist and was only about 15 years old then, if that. Eddie Shaver went on to form the band 'Shaver' with his dad."

Byron's work at ATV evolved into more than he originally bargained for. "Moving up the business ladder at ATV was not as much my choosing as it was something that had to be done for the company at the time. In the summer of 1978, there was a huge shake-up at ATV Nashville. Everyone except me (as the tape copy guy) and the new boss Gerry Teifer, was either fired or they quit. Even some of the writers bailed. It was literally only me, Gerry, and his new administrative assistant Jean Williams. Gerry asked me if I could plug songs, and I said 'sure'! Other famous songwriters like Jerome Kern and George Gershwin had at one time been 'song pluggers' so I quickly dismissed any reservations I had about it and immediately started contacting some of the writers who had great songs in the catalog, got lists of their favorites and worked from there forward." Byron's writing deal at ATV was signed in September of 1978 while he continued to plug the ATV catalog. Around the beginning of 1979 we moved into larger offices at 1217 16th Avenue South and built ATV Nashville up from its initial mostly 'acquisition catalog' beginnings started by Charlie Williams and Jonathan Stone. With an office staff of great people....Gerry Teifer, J. Remington Wilde, Jean Williams, myself, and a few others who came and went along the way, we built our writing staff back up, added a small studio on the second floor, and became a major company on Music Row". As further evidence of the importance of the entry-level 'tape copy boy' position, ATV staffer J. Remington Wilde took Byron's place in the tape room and became another student of the great schooling that the tape copy job provided. Lots of changes were pending as Byron describes..."By late 1982 Gerry Teifer had been transferred to New York and I became General Manager of ATV Nashville. Within the next year the company was acquired by Australian financier Robert Holmes A'Court. It was the beginning of the end for ATV Music worldwide as budgets were cut, many offices were closed, and the company was being prepared for an eventual bigger sale. Knowing the fate of ATV, I left the company in 1984. It was the end of a great thing for all of us. I remember when entertainer Michael Jackson eventually purchased the company and how shocked I was to hear that Jackson intended to just box up the catalog and close down all remaining offices, offices which housed the historic catalog and great staffs of people in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Rome, and Sydney, many of which I had visited and became friends with. It was one of my first hard-learned lessons in the music business....that nothing lasts forever."

While at ATV, the hits started happening for Byron as a writer in 1979 with Joe Sun's "Out Of Your Mind", and in 1981 with Johnny Lee's "Pickin' Up Strangers", with many other cuts and several smaller singles along the way. Byron co-wrote George Strait's first number one "Fool Hearted Memory" in 1982, and many other early cuts including recordings by artists such as Ray Charles, Juice Newton, Conway Twitty, Mel McDaniel, Ricky Skaggs, Margo Smith, and Reba McEntire. While at ATV, Byron also connected with someone who would be one of his most successful co-writing partners, Tony Hiller, who was then a staff songwriter for ATV London. Byron and Tony went on to co-write more than 500 songs together. Byron also branched into the production side of the business at ATV, landing a deal for Kathy Mattea and co-producing her first Mercury Records LP "Street Talk". Also Byron produced several European artists for ATV.

In 1984, after the sale and closing of ATV Music, Byron began four years as an independent songwriter/publisher, writing the Ed Bruce #4 single "Nights", as well as songs recorded by Kenny Rogers, Anne Murray, George Jones, Tom Wopat, and others. In 1988 he sold his publishing company and decided to concentrate only on writing and he signed up for what he describes as "nothing less than boot camp" as a staff writer for Collins Music, an association that yielded Alabama's #1 single "Born Country", the hit "Alright Already" for Larry Stewart, and many other cuts with artists such as Asleep At The Wheel, Barbara Mandrell, and Randy Travis. In 1992, he signed with MCA Music Nashville. At MCA Music, he landed singles by Tracy Byrd ("Lifestyles Of The Not So Rich And Famous"), Neal McCoy ("If I Was A Drinkin' Man"), George Jones ("High-Tech Redneck"), Sammy Kershaw ("Politics, Religion And Her"), River Road ("I Broke It, I'll Fix It") and Gil Grand ("Famous First Words"). In December of 1998 he signed with Starstruck Writers Group in Nashville which was sold in October of 2000 to Warner Chappell Music. In January of 2003, Byron signed with Almo Irving Music. In October of 2003 Almo Irving was closed and consolidated with Universal Music Publishing Group, where Byron is presently a staff songwriter.

As a songwriter, Byron has had more than 512 recordings of his songs. His songs have earned sixty-eight RIAA certified gold and platinum albums, nine ASCAP awards, and six #1 singles in the USA and Canada. He has new songs on current and upcoming albums by Gary Allan, Randy Travis, Joe Nichols, Jeff Bates, and others. His work as a producer includes three albums for Gary Allan on Decca Records, an album for Gil Grand on Monument Records, an album for Kathy Mattea on Mercury Records, a long-time producer/co-writer association with singer/songwriter Mike Dekle which includes four albums, and he has produced several other international and independent artists along the way, past and present, including Gord Bamford (Canada), and singer-songwriter Allen Ramsey for the Americana/Alt-Country market.

Byron performs as a singer/songwriter in Nashville and around the southeast.

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