Best In Texas * November 2004 STARS ON THE HORIZON • STARS ON THE HORIZON • STARS ON THE HORIZON • STARS ON THE HORIZON

By BrennMisti Ashford Hill: Steppin’ Out Just when it seems the spirit of the American and heard about me. Next I played a show West is long gone and the idea of the working in Denver and eventually became a regular cowboy just a faint memory, someone like at cowboy gatherings and western music Brenn Hill comes along. The Ogden, Utah festivals.” native has always been known as a “cowboy” singer, but his latest album, Endangered, shows In ’95 Hill decided to head east to Nashville. he’s that and a whole lot more. His latest sin- He spent his time knocking on doors of vari- gle “Buckaroo Tattoo,” recently reached number ous publishers on Music Row only to hear 17 on the Texas Music Chart and the cowboy – them say he needed to be more “main- make that singer-songwriter -- couldn’t be more stream.” pleased. “Here I was – a cowboy singer from the “Endangered has allowed me to step out beyond west,” says Hill. “And at that time country cowboy music,” says Hill. “In my heart of hearts music centered around the southern country Rita Coolidge. Schwartz and Hill assembled I always knew that Texas would be a place I lifestyle, not the western country lifestyle. I had some of Nashville’s A-list players for the album. would visit throughout my career. I’ve watched a rough time in Nashville. And I kept thinking the growth of the Texas scene, and I’ve always that out west I already had a career started. So “Our approach was that I was a songwriter and been interested in the fact that it’s so broad and I came back home to pursue what has evolved we weren’t going to have any boundaries,” says Hill. accepting of so many musical styles. Texas real- into five albums.” ly showed me there is a home for my music.” “It didn’t matter if it was country, cowboy, blue- In 1997 Hill released the first of those albums, grass, folk, Americana – I was going to do the Hill started singing at the age of Rangefire. The Academy of Western Artists songs I wanted to do. [Eddie] gave me the free- four in church choirs. He credits (AWA) named him their Rising Star for the year dom I always wanted to have on an album.” a seventh grade English teacher and his song “Call You a Cowboy” was nominat- for telling him he had a real ed for Song of the Year. In 1999 he released Endangered is an album Hill is proud to call his knack for writing. It wasn’t too his second independent album, Deeper Than own. Blending the roots of his cowboy sound long before he wrote his first Mud and was deemed “a bright new voice” by and the more traditional country style, the song at age 15. American Cowboy magazine. His next project album takes Hill’s work to a new arena. was Trail Through Yesterday in 2000. That “I would write a song and sing it album was named Album of the Year for 2001 “Nashville has always tried to tell me how to to the dog, or my mom, or who- by the AWA, and Hill also won the Western sound,” says Hill. “I like cowboy music and I ever I could get to listen,” laughs Music Association’s prestigious Crescendo like country music. But so many other types of Hill. “I think they were tired of Award. He followed up with a fourth album, Call music have influenced me. This album lets being my only audience.” You Cowboy. The awards kept coming: In July those influences shine through.” of 2004 the AWA membership responded to the That soon changed when his release of his latest album, Endangered, by While Hill is happy to appeal to a wider audi- family took him to the naming Hill their Western Male Vocalist of the Year. ence, he is still a proud voice for the western National Cowboy Poetry way of life. Growing up working on his grandpar- Gathering in Elko, Nevada, Endangered is the album Hill says he always ents’ land and riding horses has given him a when he was 16. He per- wanted to do. great respect for those who make their living formed there and was from the land. Hill calls agriculture the “true cor- asked to play at the “Best “The cowboy genre and way of life will always nerstone of our country.” Though he has spent of the Cowboy Music be a part of me, but I wanted to reach a broad- time as a working cowboy, he says he doesn’t Jamboree” jam session er, younger audience,” says Hill. consider himself a cowboy. at the end of the festi- val. The jam session His approach was no-holds-barred. He headed “You have to be born a cowboy,” says Hill. “I featured musical greats again to Nashville and asked Eddie Schwartz if sure have a lot of respect for those who live like Peter Rowan, he would consider producing a record for a cow- that way of life. It’s so hard to be a farmer or a Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and boy singer and was honored when he accepted. rancher. I’m just thankful I have had the oppor- Sawyer Tom Hayden. tunity to have insight into that way of life and to Schwartz is perhaps best known for writing Pat know there is purpose in my music.” * “I can draw a line back to that Benatar’s hit song “Hit Me With Your Best one show,” says Hill. “That’s Shot.” He has also written songs for Joe Misti Ashford covers Red Dirt where a lot of people heard me Cocker, the Doobie Brothers, Carly Simon, and music and the rodeo scene. www.BestInTexasOnline.com 5