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"L.J Hill's face and songs bear the marks of a hard, if full life. His songs talk of loss and yearning, in the storytelling style of Archie Roach, vocally akin to Kev Carmody, the songs brought to life by producer Brendan Gallagher, who some years ago beautifully re-invented Jimmy Little." Ed Nimmervoll in new issue of The Mag/ JB Hi Fi magazine
For contemporary singer/songwriter L.J. Hill, music has always been a part of his life and his songs illustrate the rich experience of a full life lived from the northwest plains of New South Wales in Australia to the city streets of Sydney and Melbourne for the past thirty years. Using musical influences from such disparate musicians as Merle Haggard, Bruce Springsteen and Tom.T. Hall, L.J. Hill has crafted his unique vision and subtle melody lines into memorable songs which celebrate personal family values and tell stories of a world which most people don’t know exist. Family memory is important to L.J. Hill and his haunting melodies are exemplified by his expert use of slide guitar in many of his songs. The recent completion of “Namoi Mud” complements his first album which was produced as a result of him being chosen to be part of the recent NSW Ministry of the Arts project, “Whichways”. The inspiration for much of L.J. Hill’s work is generated by the loss of friends and relatives through alcohol and substance abuse. He is a strong advocate of fighting this vicious cycle and uses his music as a weapon to help in the struggle.
L.J. Hill’s music is unique in a world of computer generated melody and song. His world weary voice tells a story of struggle and hardship countered by delicate melody lines when he sings of love and unrequited love in both the city and the bush. L.J. Hill is a gentle big bear of a man who looks back at his colourful past to create his music. He is man whose past includes expertise in Rugby League football, rodeo bull riding, shearing shed work and ‘Gentleman of the streets’ in Melbourne and Sydney. He has many stories to tell… and L.J. tells them in a most unique manner.
PRESS
NT News Darwin Festival
Courier Mail
Sydney Morning Herald
Austrailan
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Indigenous artist's second album celebrates ancestry, roots
Monday, 8 September 2008 11:51:30 AM
SYDNEY, September 8, 2008: The emergence of a powerful singer/songwriter is always a good reason for celebration - especially when that person is Indigenous and singing instant classics about loss, ancestry and the sacred earth of north western New South Wales.
Namoi Mud is the second album from LJ Hill - the son of a Kamilaroi woman and a part-Irishman, with a resemblance to The Chief from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
A work of haunting beauty and simplicity, the album narrates the stories of fringe dwellers.
Hill's own story began 59 years ago on the banks of the Namoi River in the north western NSW town of Narrabri, home to cotton, the Australia Telescope and a large Aboriginal population.
It is similar to that of many Kooris of his era, and he is passionate to pass on his history.
"See, my family would not talk, they would not pass on history, which is sad because it leaves children stumbling about," Hill says.
From the age of 16 he travelled around scratching a life in rodeo and boxing.
"I had a promising boxing career until I got into the ring," he jokes.
The one place he shone was on the footy field playing second row and prop for the Redfern All Blacks, Australia's oldest Aboriginal Rugby League team.
But football wasn't all he embraced.
"I used to drink back then and it was all one big party haze," Hill recalls.
His childhood connection to music would play a big part in Hill's healing process while getting dry.
"For me music is healing, it comes from an inner source," he says.
"When I was a little boy somebody would have a guitar and I would put my head on it and listen to the vibrations - ah, beautiful."
One of his early musical inspirations was a former American jailbird, Merle Haggard, whose earthy songs of love, regret, loss and redemption share common themes to those of Hills.
Another was Bruce Springsteen.
After an early recording sponsored by Music New South Wales, a Sydney record company brought in Brendan Gallagher, who had worked with another indigenous artist, Jimmy Little, on his hit album The Messenger.
Gallagher says of Hill's writing, "His songs are simple and sincere, and in the wrong hands would not ring as true."
Just like songs sung around a campfire, Namoi Mud was a one-take process.
"You have been playing your song for years and you go on and you know how you want them to feel and sound," he says.
With just voice and simple open chords over which Gallagher has layered an ethereal background, Hill shares with listeners the loss of family members, conjures up Grandfather Hill's voyage from England to Narrabri, takes us on the rodeo circuit and longs for the unrequited love of a dark skinned beauty from Armidale.
Hill's huge projection is tempered by the purity and aching of his writing, such as on Cold Wind: "I hear the voice for my yesterdays now callin' out my name, I don't answer to that name no more Oh, how so much has changed."
But it is on Pretty Bird Tree that Hill's skill as a songwriter shines.
Without a hint of apology or recrimination, Hill evokes a gathering spot on the banks of the Namoi where Koori, fringe dwellers and whites would come to drink and spin yarns.
One by one, Cranky Franky, Boody Man Joe Craigie and Old Whisper Smith are brought back to life for just a few minutes as Hill makes his connection to the past.
"The Pretty Bird Tree. that was a sacred place," Hill whispers.
Namoi Mud's strength lies in its clarity and simplicity of its telling, where there is no hiding place for artifice.
This is a genuinely raw, tender and heartfelt collection of songs by a man who has entered a new phase of life as an artist, with stories worth listening to and the ability to tell then well.
Hill now lives a sober life in Armidale, in northern NSW. He will be touring selectively to promote Namoi Mud.
Namoi Mud is released on 13 September, 2008, on Laughing Outlaw Records through Inertia. - AAP - John Moyle National Indigenous Times
“Listening to any of L.J.’s songs is like a cinematic experience – his descriptions of characters and their environment plays through your head like a moving picture. L.J. is like some big oak tree that’s always been there with all its history and collection of days. You get up close to the guy and you can see all that in his face and his hands. And then you hear it in the songs and in the sound of his voice.These aren’t songs about trying to be famous – these are songs that are a lot closer to the best kind of conversations that you’ve ever had.” - Perry Keyes
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