Robert Hill
Album: What Are We Waiting For
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.facebook.com/roberthillsongs

Like a breath of cool Scandinavian air, Swedish-born Robert Hill reminds us all just how powerful one fragile voice and an artfully played guitar can be. Clearly in thrall to Woody Guthrie - we could add Leadbelly, Rev Gary Davis, Pete Seeger and, of course, Dylan - Hill is only 20-years-old, but when he sings of raindrops singing and 60 kids dead in I Read Them Mornin' Papers, presumably an immediate response to the Breivik murders before the final death toll had been revealed, he's sounds like a very old soul.

Elsewhere, he takes a more direct approach to storytelling, commentary, imagining or (just occasionally) sneering in his lyrics. Debts Blues and Talkin' Blues Blues take broad swipes at the system, while Patriotic Act has a far more specific target - FBI chief Robert Mueller.

But Hill is 20-years-old and therefore much concerned with matters of the heart. She Won't Stop Lovin' Me is a prayer for a bit of space from an over-attentive lover and Wish I Could Find Me a Friend takes an equally ecclesiastical approach to loneliness.

In both, his voice is perfectly adjusted to serving the song and his playing never gets in the way of the songs.

This could well be the start of something huge… can't wait!

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk