Emma Hill
Anchorage, Alaska, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2007 | INDIE
Music
Press
"Emma Hill is not afraid to sing. In fact, her voice's countrified richness, delicate inflections and fear-no-range transitions make it easy to imagine that's all she ever does." - Amy McCullough of Willamette Weekly
"It is not so much the indie folk, alt-country and delicate roots sound that Emma has created, but the soulful beauty of her impossibly powerful vocals. To be sure, it’s the kind of voice that one can easily fall in love with. Yes, I admit it, I’m smitten!" - James G. Carlson - No Depression and The Philadelphia Examiner
"Though 'folk' is probably the genre radio fat cats would try to box her in, her songs are living creations, each a style in and of itself. It's plain old great American music, and the author is a truly talented vessel. Compare her to Caitlin Cary, Kim Richey or Neko Case, but at the end of the day, Emma Hill is a uniquely fresh addition to the scene and certainly one worth checking out."
- Tom Hallett - Elmore Magazine
"Meet Me at the Moon" isn't just consistent the whole way through, it becomes more and more absorbing from song to song...[the album] commanded the whole of my attention on the very first listen, absorbing me completely, and instantly pushing me to realize that I just may have found a new favorite female artist...the poignant lyrics conveyed by her lovely voice are what I can only describe as confessionals in the church of the heart.
- James G. Carlson - No Depression and The Philadelphia Examiner
"Well-crafted, sweetly flavored folk tunes aren't the only aspect that puts Hill at the front of the pack in her genre. From what I can tell, she's also a hell of a hard worker."..."Hill is toward the front of the line" - Mike Bookey of The Source Weekly
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Went to Telluride to see Emma Hill and her Gentleman Callers last night at the old historic Opera House. WOW!
I even cried some.I loved witnessing her raw talent, smitten by the soulful harmonies and hauntingly beautiful riffs of the slide guitar.
She's the real deal. I'm excited for her. - Milady Productions
"If you’re turned on by talent, Emma Hill will give you a total fame bone." - Max Plenke, Las Vegas Citylife
The combination of Emma Hill's gorgeous vocals, signature songwriting, and musical variations makes for a remarkable and fascinating album. Clumsy Seduction is a wonderful product of an artist on the threshold of success and stardom on the folk/Americana scene. - April Darcy, Common Folk Music
"[Hill] projects an endearing fearlessness...she is no stranger to the road. [Clumsy Seduction] suggests a future fit for Emma Hill amongst the great American ladies of song." - Barbara Bruederlin, No Depression
"Hill has the lungs. She's occasionally stunned crowds into startled silence -- in a good way. Some compare her to Joni Mitchell or Joan Baez." - Alaska Daily News
"Hill’s songs, which lilt along in a folk-singer manner, twangy but with a tinge of jazz and blues influence, are carried mostly by her beautiful, smoky voice. She sounds like a rootsier Sarah McLachlan, or perhaps like fellow Alaskan Jewel, but with more soul." - The Bend Bulletin
"Emma Hill has found her voice like never before in Just Me, her debut solo release. Emma approaches her music with the same melancholy reminiscent treatment to her songs, while offering something quite new. As always, her lyrics are haunting, touching and beautiful." - Josh Cole from The Frontiersman
"Remember the night," she sang, a cappella. "The time we fell in love, with my stomach on the mattress and you whispering from above."
The noise level dropped by half and faces in the center of the room swung toward the troubadour like weather vanes hit by a sudden wind.
Emma Hill's strong, smooth, pitch-perfect alto has a unique personal timbre that commands attention. Her tone, while flirty, possesses a sense of maturity unexpected in a 21-year-old, a blend of punky confidence and bluesy anguish with an undercurrent of pleading uncertainty.
- Mike Dunham at Alaska Daily News
Dear Emma Hill, (A Love Letter Without Intent or Expectation)
I am not writing because I know a lot about music. The foundations of my knowledge have not been built by sonic masonry, or any welded beams of categorical sound towering through academia and catalogues of the past.
I am not writing because I know enough about music to know you are great.
I am writing because you have filled stories of my empty literary constructs with your voice. It occupies impossible rooms of words, has painted walls of plaster poetry, flung out carpets of thought.
I am not writing because I know what being a great musician is, but because I feel that you are one.
And it’s not really about you being a musician, but a songwriter. I heard you sing, wanting to complete myself with the air circling within you, the melodies and poems it carried. Your voice is velvet, like wine. Sweet and slow like syrup on some slight breeze spring morning of flower petals and delicate sunshine. Or like drunkenness and starlit memories.
How have you never been to my city? You feel like the river, like those gold-water Sundays when the sky eventually stains itself with cabernet and smoke rises from conversation.
I can’t move and it’s been hours since you left The Camel in your chalkboard paint short-bus, Richmond scrawled across the hood, and your name, Emma Hill, in the place generally reserved for nonspecific destinations, like School.
Your giggling pain was slow dancing, animating the lyrics that slid along guitar strings, seeping through the cheap fabric of a Thursday night.
Don’t worry. I won’t follow you back to Portland. I’m no stalker, I’m not looking for love, and in any case not leaving this city for a while. Just please, come back, before you get famous, or tired of trying. (I have no faith in the tastes of popularity.)
I usually drink PBR while I’m out, reserving wine bottles for rooftops and alleyways. But tonight I’m drinking deep, soft red, still listening to a long quiet stage and its blend of suede folk and country, and the blue things you left behind.
I am not writing because I know much about music. I am writing to say that I have a good idea of what’s worth loving in this world, and your music is one of those things.
Love, suddenly,
-S. Preston Duncan RVmagazine - S. Preston Duncan RVmagazine
Discography
"Just Me" released on Kuskokwim Records August 2007
"Clumsy Seduction" released on Kuskokwim Records March 2009
"Meet Me at the Moon" released on Kuskokwim Records February 2011
"Clumsy Seduction" charted worldwide, including reaching #15 on The EuroAmericana charts in October of 2010.
"Meet Me at the Moon" charted worldwide including reaching #80 on the terrestrial AMA top 100 in April of 2011.
Tracks off of all three albums continue to get airplay worldwide.
Photos
Bio
In early 2007 fate brought Emma Hill and Bryan Daste together via a Craigslist ad. Daste was a recording engineer at Magic Closet Studios in Portland, OR, and Hill had come in to record her first professional demos after a recent move from her home state of Alaska. Nearly twelve busy years, six well-received albums, and countless tour miles later, they are back with the release of their 7th studio album, Magnesium Dreams. While writing songs that are emotionally charged and lyrically focused has always been Hill’s passion, with Dreams she has pushed her boundaries with genre, vulnerability, and writing style more than ever before.
These days Emma resides in Anchorage, Alaska, while Bryan still calls Portland home. The pair have most recently completed a tour around the western US states. The release of their new album, Magnesium Dreams, proves that the duo are still going strong and pushing creative boundaries, weaving together songs with sonic dreamscapes, Parisian jazz, and indie pop ballads into a single cohesive work. Critics have compared the duo to Gillian Welch and David Rawlings and they are known for being some of the hardest working touring artists in the circuit.
From her roots of growing up in the small Alaskan village of Sleetmute to her worldwide travels, Emma has worked hard to secure a name for herself as a force in the music world. Splitting her time between tour and working within the local Anchorage music scene, she’s shown her dedication to keeping music alive wherever she goes. With the addition of Daste’s expansive talent, the pair have consistently produced music that speaks to the soul. With the release of Magnesium Dreams it feels like the duo is making a definitive statement.
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