Singer-songwriter Bob Hillman is readying the release of his fifth full-length album Some of Us Are Free, Some of Us Are Lost. The San Francisco-based musician’s latest is the follow-up to his 2016 album Lost Soul, which was produced by Peter Case. Hillman, respected for his literate and melodic songwriting since the late 90s, returns to explore marriage, addiction, and death but also dive into unconventional topics such as surfing, the singer David Crosby, and the short-story writer Raymond Carver.
The album was recorded in Southern California at Boulevard Recording and 64 Sound with the help of producer Jonny Flaugher (Ryan Adams, The Weepies) and mix engineer Ethan Allen, a Daniel Lanois protégé. Flaugher, who also plays bass on the album, recruited an all-star cast of players including Rich Hinman (k.d. Lang, Roseanne Cash) on guitars and pedal steel, Philip Krohnengold (Sara Bareilles, Milk Carton Kids) on keyboards, drummers Tamir Barzilay (Macy Gray) and Griffin Goldsmith (Dawes), Jordan Katz (Lucinda Williams) on horns, Paul Cartwright (Father John Misty, Kamasi Washington) on strings, and vocalists Laura Mace (Foo Fighters), Sarah Dugas, and Marky Lennon (Roger Waters, Phil Collins). The album will be released physically and digitally on April 5th.
Hillman’s career began in the late 90s/early 00s when he released three albums (two of which were produced by Jim Croce’s Tommy West), opened for the likes of Steve Forbert, Mary Gauthier, Dan Bern, and Suzanne Vega (on her year-long Songs in Red and Gray tour in the U.S. and Europe the early 00s), and performed at the 2002 Newport Folk Festival. After taking some time off from making music, Hillman returned in 2016 with the Peter Case-produced Lost Soul. In May 2018, Hillman and Flaugher conceived Some of Us Are Free, Some of Us Are Lost at the Fillmore Auditorium, where Jonny was playing with The Weepies and Bob was opening the show. The kernel of an idea – attempting to capture the visceral spirit of certain folk and folk-rock masterpieces of the 60s and 70s without specifically referring to their sounds or instrumentation – resonated and they were in the studio by mid-August.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the video for the title track from Hillman’s new album “Some of Us Are Free, Some of Us Are Lost”. The song is a folksy power pop meditation on what it means to be a traveler. Set to a low-key groove, Hillman sings about a sort fictional interpretation of what it would be like to live a careless life on the road. The song and the music and lyrics brings to mind acts like the Jayhawks and Dawes, with a distinctive West Coast vibe.
In his own words, Hillman has this to say about the song:
“I made the video with director Dan Foldes and the idea was simply to cast me as a traveler – a little like the one in the song – and capture me in some of the settings I sing about. Dan and I didn’t have the resources to crisscross North America like Kerouac and Cassidy, so we identified local spots that could stand in for the images in the song, starting with Zeki’s bar in Nob Hill and Ocean Beach. “
WATCH:
