Backstage With Douglas McLean: A Conversation With Steve Hill

The Sound Cafe
Jan 26, 2023
2 min read

Released Nov 11, 2022, 'Dear Illusion' is a masterful continuation of Steve Hill’s previous album, 2020’s 'Desert Trip'. Douglas McLean chats with Steve about this latest album and his illustrious career for The Sound Cafe podcast 'Backstage'.

You can listen to the entire interview and music HERE

“Dear Illusion” is a new approach to Steve’s long music career and music production, featuring his powerful guitar and vocals along with a massive horn section in support of his superb songwriting and intriguing world view.

Widely considered one of Canada’s most prolific guitarists, Steve Hill has never stopped delivering wildly ambitious performances and satisfying original albums. Heralded wherever he goes, the guitarist, singer, drummer, harmonica player, songwriter and accomplished producer is a musical force to be reckoned with.

Forget the fact that he has won a Juno award, played concertos with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphonic Orchestra, won enough Blues awards to fill a bathtub and walked the boards of too many stages to count throughout his 27-year career, when you stop to hear his music you know you’re listening to the real deal.

A guitar stylist with a wide musical vocabulary, he has performed over 2,500 concerts in many configurations. For the past 8 years he has toured extensively throughout Canada and Europe in support of his critically acclaimed Solo Recordings, albums trilogy, and one man band show. Steve got his start as an 18-year-old sideman in 1993 and released his first album in 1997. Since then he has shared the stage with many of his heroes, like Ray Charles, B.B. King and ZZ Top, to name a few, and has played at some of Canada’s biggest music festivals. With 11 albums of original songs to his name, he has explored everything from Rock, Country, Folk, and all kinds of music, while continuing to fuse it all with his first love, the Blues.

1 JUNO AWARD

Blues Album of the year (2015)

MEMPHIS INTERNATIONAL BLUES CHALLENGE

Best self-produced CD (2013)

8 MAPLE BLUES Awards

Electric act of the year (2000 – 2014 – 2015)

Entertainer of the year (2014 – 2015)

Guitarist of the year (2014 – 2015)

Album of the year (2014)

FEATURED SONGS:

Steal the Light From You

Don't Let the Truth Get In the Way (Of a Good Story)