HILL COUNTRY REVIEW

07/18/2009

Visulite Theatre (18 +)

Doors Open: 8:00 - Headliner Begins: 10:30

Cody Dickinson - Guitar/Drums/Piano/Washboard     
Chris Chew - Bass/Vocals
Ed 'Hot' Cleveland – Drums
Daniel Coburn - Vocals/Harp
Kirk Smithhart - Guitar/Vocals

HILL COUNTRY REVUE is THE modern Southern Rock / Blues band for the new generation. Formed by Cody Dickinson from The North Mississippi Allstars in 2008, it features Chris Chew, Kirk Smithhart, Ed “Hot” Cleveland and Dixie Dan Coburn. The band’s debut album, ‘Make a Move’, will be released by Razor and Tie Records in May 2009. Hill Country Revue will tour the country up until the release of the record. For the summer of 2009 HCR will focus on Festival and support slots. Fall 2009 will be compromised of a headlining national tour.

As part of the North Mississippi Allstars, Cody Dickinson and Chris Chew have three Grammy nominated albums under their belt. They have shared the stage with artists as diverse as Kid Rock, Dave Matthews Band and Mavis Staples, and toured all over the world steadily since 1996, earning a legion of fans.

The majority of the material on ‘Make A Move’ was written by protégé Garry Burnside, the youngest of RL and Alice Mae Burnside’s fourteen children. Garry is a walking encyclopedia of Mississippi hill country blues. He grew up playing with Junior Kimbrough every Sunday night in Junior’s world-famous juke joint (where he met a young Cody Dickinson for the first time).

Kirk Smithhart was awarded The Albert King award for Best Guitarist by the Blues Foundation when he was only 19. Daniel Robert Coburn, born and raised in Flint MI, cut his teeth playing rock and hardcore. He formed Dixie Hustler in 2001 whose debut record was produced by Aaron Julison of Kid Rock and Cody Dickinson. Edward Cleveland grew up surrounded by the gospel music of Memphis and has recorded and toured with a number of lauded musicians including Olanda Draper, Shalamar, and Howard Hewitt.

 

www.myspace.com/hillcountryrevue

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SONS OF BILL

Start Time: 9:00

It starts with the music. A sound that’s all too familiar, yet somehow resists an easy definition. Too edgy for Nashville, but too earnest for New York. Drawing comparisons to artists ranging from George Jones to the Gin Blossoms – Gram Parsons to Guns and Roses – Sons of Bill have been called “equal parts raucous and reflective.” A sound which is revolutionary only in its simplicity.

It starts with the music because it started with the music. Bill Wilson’s three eldest sons grew up listening to him fingerpick old country tunes around the house. They learned to sing harmony at family holidays and inherited old guitars with their hand-me-down jeans. The past two decades sent James, Sam and Abe in disparate musical directions: teenage heavy metal fests, old-time barn dances, college bars and New York City jazz clubs. But in 2005 the brothers all returned – one from a cattle ranch in Nevada, one from an apartment in Brooklyn, one from Grad school in Maryland – and for the first time in their lives they began to make music together. With the addition of long-time friends Seth Green and Brian Caputo, Bill’s sons became Sons of Bill.

With a live show known to evolve from acoustic ballads into sweaty stage-dives, Sons of Bill has gained a loyal fan base from Florida to NYC, sharing the stage with acts ranging from Robert Randolph to Robert Earl Keen. After selling their self-released debut album A Far Cry from Freedom by the thousands, SOB flew to California in late 2008 to record a much anticipated follow up. Tracked live in just 10 days with legendary producer Jim Scott (Wilco, Tom Petty, Whiskeytown) One Town Away is as honest and straightforward as records get. 12 songs about the struggles and hopes of human life, played by five guys from central Virginia, raised on traditional country music with an unabashed love for Rock n’ Roll. With the album out on June 23rd, 2009, Sons of Bill are back on road, pressing hot copies of it on masses of unsuspecting concert-goers. We hope you’ll be one of them.

 

sonsofbill.com