Hillman Album No. 5 |
Collage I: click for full-screen view |
Hillman Album No. 6 |
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Tattered Fender case used for percussion effects BLUES 'ROUND MY DOOR |
Before returning to the drum cage and vocal mic CHINA SONG | IN SADNESS | BLUE SHALLOW RIVER |
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Backing for Sue-On's HARVEST | KENTUCKIAN SONG |
Backing JOHN CAMPBELL and CAJUN STOMP |
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ON MY MIND |
MUDDY MISSISSIPPI LINE | MASSACRE |
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FIXIN' IN THE MIX
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DAS MACHINE IS NICHT FUR GERFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN. IS EASY SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK. BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKEN. IST NICHT FUR GERWERKEN BY DAS DUMMKOPFEN. DAS RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN HANDS IN DAS POCKETS. RELAXEN UND WATCH DAS BLINKENLIGHTS. |
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RECORDING ANECDOTES
Adapted from the Guitar Notes
Section of our online Book:
Hillman
50-Year Musical Odyssey
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RECORD ALBUM #5 14 ORIGINAL SONGS Maple Grove Records ~ MGS-1005 |
RUNAWAY SLAVES ~ PRAIRIE DANCE HALLS ~ CHINA DOLLS ~ CAJUN FIDDLES ~ WAYWARD WOMEN & RESTLESS RIVERS ~ BAR ROOM LOSERS ~ MONTANA TOURS ~ WANDERLUST ~ ORIENTAL LAMENTS ~ WISTFUL LOVE BALLADS ~ ALLIGATOR POACHERS & MOONSHINERS ~ GOSPEL SONGS ~ MANITOBA BOYHOOD MEMORIES THESE RAMBLINGS FROM THE MIND OF BILL HILLMAN HAVE INSPIRED THE SONGS WITHIN We had written four songs for Album No. 3 which we released on a jacketed EP. The reviews from trade papers and radio stations were encouraging enough that I kept at it. We did four more originals for another EP which got good play on CBC radio. In fact, my Grandmother Jane Hillman, who lived in Elrose, Saskatchewan, was quite surprised, and I guess a little proud, to hear us on CBK Regina. By now we had eight originals to which we soon added six more to release as an all-original album. This album differed considerably from our previous efforts in that we used no sidemen -- Sue-On, Barry and myself did all the instruments, with a little help on keyboards from Kevin Pahl who was about to replace Barry in the group.
I lived and breathed this album for many months and was involved in all stages of its development: words and music to all songs, arrangements, production, all guitars, half the lead vocals, back-up and harmony vocals, photography, album design, pressing and mastering decisions, promotion, etc. Whew!... got that outa my system. From this album on, Sue-On and I were fully involved in all our albums -- mainly because in those early days of Independent record production there really wasn't anyone to turn to who could offer much in the way of professional advice, so we had to learn as we went along.
This album marked the session debut of Sue-On on drums and as a songwriter. She adapted a Mandarin Chinese poem to an oriental-sounding melody I had written. Sue-On came to Canada when she was 10, and although she speaks fluent Cantonese, she left her Hong Kong schooling before she had mastered the intricacies of Chinese writing. We asked her dad, Soo Choy, to write out the Chinese characters in the brush strokes that appear on the back cover of the album. . . .
Most of the photos on the album cover were taken in the new music and games room in our Maple Grove basement. We sat on a full-size snooker table -- a big antique oak effort with thick heavy slates that Sue-On and I had disassembed and dragged down the stairs in pieces. The background is one of our shake-covered walls while the splash of white in front of us is actually the furry back of our Great Pyrenees dog, Mya I. We had brought Mya back with us from our Montana tour the summer before.
The finished albums arrived from Toronto the same day we left for Nashville on one of our summer holiday driving marathons. We had been on Nashville's music row before but we had never had a product to flog. Many of the music execs suggested that the album wasn't country enough for the Nashville market. We never guessed that in a year we would be taking the same album around to studios, publishers and promoters in London, England where we would be told that the album was a little too country for their market.
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RECORD ALBUM Volume 6 THE HILLMAN EXPRESS TRACK 15 Maple Grove Records ~ MGS-1006 |
This album was a transitional and trans-Atlantic venture - hence the name Prairie to Soho on side one. Some of the songs were written while Barry Forman was still with the group. As a result much of the material was written to feature his fiddle. The songs from the first sessions were recorded at Winnipeg's Century 21 Studios and to these we added four songs recorded in London's Gooseberry Studios at the end of our first tour of England.
BEHIND THE COVERSFront Cover: We posed for these photos wearing the patched chamois leather outfits we bought in London and had worn for much of our tour of clubs in the North East. We had recently imported grass-thatch wallpaper from Asia to cover our dining room walls and it was a remnant from this on which we pasted our photos -- laid out in the shape of an "H", and framed with stray pieces of bamboo-like grass. The centre photo featured our new Ovation acoustic guitar. Sue-On created the Indian-style beaded jewelry that we both wore.
Back Cover: Since we had written all of the songs on the album, we displayed the lyrics on the cover. The Hillman Express locomotive logo is an old woodcut we had come across. Again we used a filmstrip to feature some of our recent candid shots. The railway caboose and handcar photos were taken at Minnedosa's riverside park. The strip also features promo shots with outgoing band member, Barry Forman and incoming member, Kevin Pahl.
BILL and SUE-ON HILLMAN: A 50-YEAR
MUSICAL ODYSSEY
BOOK
COVER
BOOK
CONTENTS
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