JULIE HILL contemporary folk Singer/Songwriter Biography

Photo: Bruce Zollinger

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Julie makes her music the same way she makes you play
freeze tag on the lawn...
or jump into a pond...
or stop on a freeway to pick dried flowers---
full of life, energy and love.
Jen DeMayo

Salt Lake City’s Event newspaper states that
“Hill’s the Best”. Julie Hill was named the best local
CD of 1997 by the Event and placed in the “Top 20” by
Salt Lake City Weekly.

Julie began playing the guitar in the spring
of 1993.Her songwriting,however, did not begin there.
She claims that songwriting has been within her since
childhood. She recalls making up her own songs,as well
as singing along with Barbara Streisand, The Carpenters
and Neil Sedaka, to name just a few. In fact, as a
child, Julie was convinced that she sounded just like
Debbie Boone.

Her style of music has broadened since then and
today she has been described as a Contemporary Folk
artist. However, she does not hesitate to credit any
of her earliest influences. She feels that all of the
influences from childhood to present have contributed
to her individual songwriting style and performance.
Some of her more current, “folk-oriented” influences
include Cat Stevens, Shawn Colvin, James Taylor and
Paul Simon.

Julie was born in Salt Lake City in 1969.
Although her life’s path has taken her to Iowa,
Illinois, South Carolina and Washington,D.C., she
claims her roots to be firmly planted in Utah.
After having spent a summer in the deserts of
Southern Utah with an outdoor adventure program,
Julie’s connection to the desert has become an
integral part of her relationship with nature and
her songwriting. Quite a few of her songs have been
inspired by the red rock landscape of Utah’s desertlands.
Often she writes about her surroundings in the natural
world and the beauties found in its purity. Bill Frost
from the "Salt Lake City Weekly" claims that she is
“the current front-runner in the yet-to-be-established
Henry David Thoreau songwriting contest,”
a quote with which Julie has no qualms.

Julie graduated from Brigham Young University
with a Bachelor of Science degree in Recreation Therapy
and has used her music as a means of therapy with some
of her clients. She states, “I strongly believe in
the therapeutic effects of music.
Music has changed my life. Yet, along with being
therapeutic, I think that music takes us on unfamiliar
roads, lifts us from our places of standing, or validates
where we’ve been. It weaves common threads among us.
I feel that music is one of the surest ways of
communication to the soul.”

In June of 1997, Julie released her self-produced
debut CD, “Running Tree”, a compilation of 16 songs,
of which 14 are originals. The CD includes featured
artists on violin, banjo, percussion, and 12 string,
bass and electric guitar. Self-producing her CD allowed
her to include significant friends and acquaintances
for back-up instrumentation, and enabled her to preserve
the rawness of that which she represents. She is
currently in the 2nd printing of the CD.

Founder and organizer of the 1998 “First Annual
Farm Folk Festival” in Tremonton, Utah, Julie presented
12 of Utah’s top folk performers. She has performed in
various cities and towns throughout Utah and neighboring
states, including competition in both NXNW and SXSW band
competitions in Salt Lake City. She participated in the
1997 and 1998 Rocky Mountain singer/songwriter workshops
in Lyons,Colorado sponsored by Planet Bluegrass,
receiving instruction from legendaries such as Tom Paxton,
Paul Reisler, Steve Seskin and Julie Portman as well as
John Gorka, Vance Gilbert, David Wilcox, Peter Himmelman
and Maggie Simpson.

“Julie has a duality within her vocals,
passionately raspy yet silky smooth” states fellow
musician Rob Sanabria. She is a true, down-to-earth,
expressive singer/songwriter whose simplicity and honesty
enrapture her audiences. Her music reminds us of our
connections to nature and to each other and the realness
she exudes reaches those who chance to listen. You’re
sure to find yourself reflecting somewhere between her
steady, strong voice, her soul-reaching lyrics and her
soul that fills the sky.

Photo: Jenny Johnson

click on photo to e-mail Julie jhill@utahlinx.com