Roots rock/Americana stalwart, Ned Hill – raised on the sounds of FM Radio, American Bandstand and drug store jukeboxes in the small town of Horse Cave, KY – has kept his sights on Music City, where he’s planted his feet for over 20 years, performing regularly at East Nashville’s The Five Spot, and touring the south, midwest and New England. While frequently collaborating with one of Nashville’s most coveted auxiliary players, Michael Webb (John Prine, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, Hank Williams Jr).
Tracking an expansive career, from the cowpunk grit of Ned Van Go to the Paul Westerberg-tinged aggression of The Cowards, it’s plain to see how prolific Hill has become, with such a wide-ranging oeuvre; although, his burgeoning solo career has only just begun. On his forthcoming, sophomore LP, By the Light of the Radio (out October 2 via WhistlePig Records), Ned Hill promises the working-class ethos of Springsteen, embracing the country blues, Big Daddy-era spirit of personal Midwestern hero, John Cougar Mellencamp, all while framing the bubbling anxieties of more woke Southern influences, such as Drive-By Truckers.
In the studio, helping to nurture Hill’s ambition, was Michael Webb (piano, organ, mandolin, vocal harmonies)–one of four-time Grammy award-winning Americana producer, Dave Cobb’s “secret weapons”–Dave Coleman of the Coal Men (lead & rhythm guitar), Tina Simpson on violin, viola and vocal harmonies (Tommy Emmanuel), Jeffrey Perkins on percussion (Billy Joe Shaver, Paul Thorn), Ralph Friedrichsen on bass (Paul Thorn), and Laur Joamets (Sturgill Simpson, Drivin N Cryin) on lead guitar & rhythm. By the Light of the Radio was recorded at THE BUNK HOUSE in Detroit, MI, produced, engineered and mixed by WhistlePig label owner and Motor City native, Bunky Hunt, who also provided acoustic guitar and vocal harmonies to the record. Additional tracking was provided by Michael Webb at 8:05 Studio in Nashville and Tracehorse Studio in Berry Hill, TN.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the hard-hitting opener, “Lonely Heart of Mine,” a song that establishes that listless and idle feeling of sitting at a bar, on a cold and rainy night, alone and clueless of what’s to come, in the looming presence of darkness and existential dread. The song carries an everyman alt-country feeling that has just the amount of twang and catchiness to linger in your mind long after listening. Hill writes from a timeless perspective and it feels like his songs would just as much sense fifty years ago as they do now. The addition of organ and fiddle give the song an extra dose of sentimental soul.
Ned Hill describes the inspiration behind the song:
“For ‘Lonely Heart Of Mine,’ the chorus melody and lyric came to me when I was sitting in a bar, alone on a late, rainy Saturday night. It is simply a song of longing for another: another’s closeness, another’s intimate conversation, another’s touch. Even a crowded bar cannot cure a lonely heart without it. In relation to the record as a whole, it is part of one of the themes; that being the nature of connection, often changing and tenuous as time goes on. Whether you’re trying to find it, trying to regain it, or realizing it has gone, the yearning for connection and desire remains if it is absent in the present, even as one gets older. It seems that with what is going on around us now, the whole world is feeling that.”
WATCH:
By the Light of the Radio is due out October 2 via WhistlePig Records. Pre-order
Photo credit: Scott Willis
