Still on the Hill

BLUEGRASS NOW REVIEW

By Julie Koehler

These musicians have grafted the wild climbing vines of bluegrass, folk, classical and mountain music onto the hardiest of Ozark rootstock. The result is yet-to-be-named hybrid music that compels people to stop and listen, to pause in their hectic lives and pay attention to something they’ve never heard before. It’s magic and there’s simply not enough magic in the world today.

Visually, Still on the Hill is full of color and motion: they command their instruments with power and grace, producing a sound that is both fresh and ancient at the same time. Lyrically, their original material is  packed with new ideas, social awareness and a level of intellect and consciousness that’s seldom found in contemporary tunes.

Still on the Hill are consummate professionals, whether they’re performing for an audience of one or for thousands. Their high-energy seems to emerge from somewhere deep inside their souls. They play music for only one reason” it’s a spark, or maybe a raging bonfire, inside each of them that has to come out. It’s something that’s shared just as easily with a large festival audience as it would be with a quiet Ozark Forest.