2008

Rootstime
Spotlight artist, January 2008

Over the last ten years, the German Blue Rose record label has acquired an excellent reputation as purveyor of Americana music. They focus almost exclusively on American artists. The extremely talented Markus Rill is the only German under contract with his compatriots who have artists like Kris Kristofferson, Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Dwight Yoakam and John Hiatt on their roster.
Rill has been making records for ten years now and well deserves to bet he first spotlight artist of the new year. His new album „The Things that Count“ is his eighth album altogether since the release of his debut „Gunslinger’s Tales“ in 1997.

Rill’s has been recognized several times for his songwriting from the ISC International Songwriting Competition with 15,000 entries and jury members like Tom Waits, Loretta Lynn, and Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, from the International Unison, the International Narrative Song Contest, American Songwriter magazine and others. He started his musical career in the mid-90ies as a literature student at the University of Texas in Austin. In the meantime, he has toured extensively throughout Europe and the US, headlining & sharing stages with artists like Townes van Zandt, Hal Ketchum, Chris Knight, the Drive-By Truckers, Elliott Murphy, Steve Wynn amd lots of others. He has also recorded with Duane Jarvis and Steve Conn. Our troubadour learned the ins and outs of the songwriter profession growing up in Austin, Tx.
The albums following his aforementioned 1997 debut, „The Devil And The Open Road“ (1999) and „Nowhere Begins (2001), were also recorded in Germany.
With „Hobo Dream“ (2004) he started recording in Nashville. Top producer Duane Jarvis had recruited some formidable musicians to replace Rill’s band „The Gunslingers“: bassist Rick Plant (from Buddy Miller’s band), drummer Billy Block (Jim Lauderdale) and piano, organ & accordion ace Steve Conn. It’s not hard to imagine the results: A formidable Americana record in the tradition of Townes van Zandt, Steve Earle, and Chris Knight, well-sung and beautifully arranged. Just like the songwriting, the arrangements sound very carefully crafted with slide guitar, mandolin, accordion, and Wurlitzer). The album also features three songs cut in Rill’s homewtown of Wuerzburg/Germany but audibly breathing the same air.

From the rocking opener „Heartbreak Town“ to the soulful closer, Rill manages to hold our attention throughout the album - with spectacular numbers like the title track, the Jarvis-driven roots rockers like „Heartbreak Town“ and „Not Yet Shipwrecked“, the accordion-laced „Where Do We Go From Here“ featuring Karen Poston’s pleasant harmonies and the pretty closing number „Far Away From Home (Yet Home)“. This is a particularly successful and soulful Americana album from top to bottom.

The same year, 2004, also saw the release of „The Hobo Companion“, a CD available exclusively through Rill’s website and at his concerts. Rill compiled 13 tracks as a supplement to the successful „Hobo Dream“ album, among them cover versions of Townes van Zandt (Waiting Around To Die), Gillian Welch & David Rawlings (One More Dollar), Robert Earl Keen (So I Can Take My Rest), and Johnny Cash (Folsom Prison Blues). There’s also live recordings of some formidable self-penned songs like „Nowhere Begins“, „A Girl Called Jo“, „Hobo Dream“, „Run Run Run“, and „Where Do We Go From Here?“. On this last number and in the van Zandt/Steve Earle-medley of „If I Needed You/Ft. Worth Blues“ we hear Rachel Harrington who was on tour in the Netherlands last year.

„The Price Of Sin“ was released in May 2006 to spectacular reviews. It landed on numerous year-end best lists of journalists and radio DJs all over Europe. The album was co-produced by Nashville’s Tone Chaperone George Bradfute and Rill and features some of the best-known musicians on the Americana scene: multi-instrumentalist Fats Kaplin (Tom Russell, Dead Reckoners) on fiddle, pedal steel, mandolin, banjo, and accordion, Dave Jacques (John Prine, Patty Griffin, Todd Snider) on upright bass, drummer Bryan Owings (Buddy Miller, Shelby Lynne), and Dave Coleman (The Coal Men). This fantastic album is deeply engrained in American roots music and features twelve intimate acoustic numbers, mainly ballads.

They’re all as beautiful as the opening track „Singin’ In The Cemetery“ in which the singer mourns the death of a loved one. „Wash Away The Stain“ conveys the painful feeling of contrition after having sinned and the closer „Not Ready Yet“ conveys the thoughts of a son in fear of his father’s death. „The Price You Pay For Sin“, the album’s outstanding track, describes the rare emotional combination of desire and regret after having seduced your best friend’s wife. Undoubtedly, this album will last.

Such as "The hobo Companion" from 2004 appeared also previous year is "live" - plate (2007) that only available is during its actions or by means of its own web site, this all to a very attractive prijsje. And at listening to this album, I could without delay note that it products pleasure must be these hear lords live to the work. With the accompaniment of Robert Hasleder (mandolin, dobro, weissenborn) and Andreas Obieglo (piano, accordion, jet ear, vocal) weet he by fifteen songs from its recent work to nest itself. "live" incorporated in the Lab in Stuttgart and in the Licca lounge in country mount old work from "hobo exchanges Dream" with new "The Price or Sin". It are natural Rill's strong numbers which last. There is much appreciation for the fans, which is spoiled with this expenditure.

Like 2004’s „The Hobo Companion“, last year’s „Live“ CD is only available through Rill’s website and at his shows – at a very attractive price. Listening to this album immediately conveys what a joy it must be to see Rill live in concert. The 15 songs recorded at the Lab in Stuttgart and the Licca Lounge are mostly drawn from „Hobo Dream“ and „The Price Of Sin but also include some older numbers, covers, and a couple songs were unreleased at the time and saw the light of day on „The Things That Count“. Rill is expertly accompanied by Robert Hasleder (mandolin, dobro, Weissenborn lap slide) and Andreas Obieglo (piano, accordion, guitar, vocal). Naturally, Rill’s great songs hold up in these stripped-down arrangements. The album shows much appreciation for his fans who are spoiled by this release.