HILL : MOUNTAIN MAN

1. Mountain Man
2. Who The Hell Do You Think You Are
3. Make It Up As You Go
4. Sittin' And Thinkin'
5. Born With Rhythm
6. Tale From A Tavern
7. Sweet Sorrow
8. Deep Elm Blues
9. Crazy Ramblin' Dreamer
10. Devil In You Son

Label : Capitol Records

Released : 1975

Length : 35:44

Review (Slipcue) : This is a plausibly rootsy record, and you can see how songwriter Gary Hill was able to swing a major label record deal, even if he wasn't the world's greatest singer, and few of the songs are really that memorable. Nonetheless, Hill wasn't able to sustain his good fortune or his creative mojo for very long; he cut two albums for Capitol and that was that until he released a couple of indie records in the early 2000s. I came to this first disc backwards, having picked up his second record a long time ago and found it kind of bland... But this debut - which originally was released under the rather democratic "band" name Hill - is an eclectic mix of outlaw country, Southern rock and sluggish boogie-rock. The album's most notable features the Southern rock slide guitar on tracks such as "Make It Up As You Go" and the spacy, jam-bandish "Born With Rhythm," as well as the snarky, vindictive lyrics of "Who The Hell Do You Think You Are," an outlaw-ish song in the same mode as early Michael Martin Murphey. An okay hippiebilly album, worth having around and certainly stronger and more compelling than the Booga Billy record that followed... If you like Michael Murphey or Rusty Wier, this might be worth checking out.