ROBERT HILL & JOANNE LEDIGER - REVELATION

ROBERT HILL & JOANNE LEDIGER - REVELATION

GOSPEL BLUES
LABEL: SELF
RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

Many of the pioneering recording artists of the 1920's and 30's such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House, Blind Blake, and Willie Johnson were itinerant American blues and gospel singer/songwriters, guitarists, and evangelists. Arkansas born Robert Hill drew inspiration from them for his award-winning original song, "Preacher's Blues" sung by his partner Joanne Lediger on their new release, Revelation, a collection of eleven new tracks of traditional Gospel Blues, which includes four new originals penned by Hill. Joining the duo, who have been performing together for the past 15 years, are Hill's daughter, Paulina, on vocals, Frank Pagano on drums and percussion, Steve Gelfand on bass, with Robert Hill on vocals, keys, harmonica, and his award-winning slide guitar. It has often been said " It's a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning," and this album strives to prove that axiom self-evident.

The first recording of the song "John The Revelator" was by the blues singer Blind Willie Johnson in 1930. From the opening, tension-building riff of a National guitar, Hill and company immediately set the stage for the darkly atmospheric and driving blues rock that soon thunders in. Lediger's commanding, plaintive vocal perfectly conveys the story, aided by dueling slide guitar and blues harp. "Run On" is a straight­ahead boogie which smokes from the first note to the last, locked in by the airtight rhythm section of Pagano and Gelfand, Hill's incendiary slide work, and an irresistible arrangement. Lediger's voice soars on this, as she belts out warnings to those who run afoul of the Lord. Hill's reworking of the Blind Willie Johnson song, "The Soul Of A Man," may be the deepest and most soulful cut on the album, giving the depression-era treatise a modern, ghostly soundscape, heavy rhythm, and some intense interplay between his guitar and harmonica. Also, perhaps the most compelling arrangement on the album. Stepping aside from the traditional tunes, the band turns Tom Waits' "Way Down In The Hole," into a hip-bouncing blues rhumba, aided by the sultry lead vocals of Hill's daughter, Paulina.

The first of four originals penned by Hill, "Jesus By The Riverside," has an infectious chorus and deep roots in country blues, with an extended outgoing slide solo that brings Americana flavors into the mix.

It's follow-up, "Pay One Way Or Another," is set to a grinding blues groove, with Lediger belting out a humorous indictment of the hypocrisy of modern religious zealots. "It's Nobody's Fault But Mine" is one of Blind Willie Johnson's most interpreted songs, which Hill and Co. deliver as a melancholy expression of spiritual struggle, setting it on the back porch v. the pulpit. Hill dishes out advice to not pay heed to temptation on his original Chicago shuffle, "A Devil's Fool." Another classic open to interpretation is the Old Testament story of "Samson And Delilah," told here by Paulina Hill over a strutting, honkytonk shuffle. Lediger seeks counsel from her pastor, who gives a strong, but humorous rebuke on the Hill Country infused, "Preacher's Blues."

The earliest known recording of "Jesus On The Mainline" was Alan Lomax's recording of Mississippi Fred McDowell in the early 1950s. Here, Hill, his daughter, and Lediger use the traditional Baptist hymn as the final altar call for Revelation - an uplifting finale to an album which is a refreshingly unique and contemporary take on a traditional genre.

WEBLINKS

OS: www.roberthillband.com FB: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1141143640 TW: www.twitter.com/RobertHillSlide IG: www.instagram.com/roberthill534/

Blind Raccoon, betsie@blindraccoon.com