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Brenn Hill's Web Site and Contact Information
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About Brenn Hill
official biographyThere’s a certain mystique surrounding the West that has continued to fascinate people for centuries. It’s reflected in the rugged beauty of the land and the spirit of its people. It’s those compelling landscapes that are brought vividly to life in the music of Brenn Hill.
The Utah born singer/songwriter creates music that not only pays homage to Western’s music’s finest traditions, but also serves as a passport to today’s Mountain West. He does just that again on his sixth album, WHAT A MAN’S GOT TO DO, a potent collection of songs filled with interesting characters and eagle-eyed observations on life, love and the indomitable western spirit. Continued below...
Selected Lyrics
What A Man's Got To Do
Pickup Truck Café
Call You Cowboy
The Store
What A Man's Got To Do
There's six hundred dollars tucked into his jeans
Burnin' a hole in his heart
He stares at the phone in a cheap motel
And he knows that it won't get him far
Got a half-busted shoulder on a bull down in Houston
There once was a time that he didn't mind losin'
But it's all on the line now and then some too
And he just don't know what to doThere's a Greyhound Station with a midnight ride
That'd take him back home before dawn
And he could pick up that phone and hear her voice on the line
And like a flash of wild lightnin' be gone
But another bus leaves for Laredo at sunrise
As he fights back the tears fallin' down from his blue eyes
He whispers her name and a prayer to get through
'Cause he just don't know what to doIt's a hundred year story of struggle and strife
It's the pain and the glory of every cowboy's life
When there's just enough money to ride or go home
You fall down for good or you get back onThere's a chute flyin' open down in Laredo Texas
The crowd comes alive with the rush
There's a cowboy spinnin' and a Brahma-cross buckin'
He's ridin' all out or bust
He's fightin' and spurrin'
They're twistin' and turnin'
And inside the fire it just keeps on burnin'
And he calls when it's over to say I love you
But a man's got to do what a man's got to do© 2006, Red Cliffs Press Music (BMI)/ Silversongs West Music (BMI). All rights reserved.
Used by permission.
Pickup Truck Café
Talk about the weather
And the prices of cattle
Your wife's worthless brother
And his brand new saddle
Talk about women
The heart-breakin' kind
And lay it all on the table
Get it off your mind
Down at the Pickup Truck Café
We drink coffee here every day
We sit and talk the morning away
Down at the Pickup Truck Café
'Cross the county line
And out on the very edge of town
You'll never see the sign
Facin' down on the ground
The world's movin' on
The mornin' radio
Twenty years long gone
Nobody knows where they goDown at the Pickup Truck Café
We drink coffee here every day
We sit and talk the morning away
Down at the Pickup Truck Café
It don't matter what you wear
It don't matter who you are
Cuz most things they don't care
But don't you dare drive a car
Down to the Pickup Truck Café
We drink coffee here every day
We sit and watch the time just fade away
Down at the Pickup Truck Café
© 2004 Red Cliffs Press Music (BMI) / Silversongs West (BMI)
All rights reserved. Used by permission
from Endangered
Call You Cowboy
God saved some lucky men to be cowboys
'Cause no ordinary man can wear the name
Hearts of gold and hands of leather
And that restless spirit no one will ever tameCHORUS:
Branded by the land
Befriended by the wind
You may never pass this way again
But somethin' in the wind is sayin' that your time is now, boy
Your daddy calls you a drifter
I call you cowboyThat voice of freedom is callin' you down the line
And you don't know where you're goin' but you know what you leave behind
So you're saddlin' up now to chase your dreams
To show yourself and the world what freedom really meansCHORUS
She's got eyes as blue as the sky
Whoever said that cowboys don't cry
Its just somethin' deep inside sayin' your time is now, boy
Your daddy calls you a drifter
I call you cowboy
Yeah, your daddy calls you a drifter
I call you friend
I call you cowboy
I call you cowboy
I call you cowboy© 1997 Red Cliffs Press Music (BMI).
All rights reserved. Used by permission
from Call You Cowboy
The Store
They moved to the outskirts of this little railroad town
They planted dreams and started bustin' ground
And they grew wheat and corn through the dust bowls and the rains
And they lived by the whistle of the trains
Shippin' west to California and the Arizona desert
On a rail line that rolled just like a river
And they raised up a family on a modest farmers pay
Through the hard times they somehow found a wayCHORUS:
But now a human revolution
And another day's pollution
Got the real estate men breakin' down the door
Sayin' goodbye to the plains
Goodbye to the trains
No need for a farmer anymore
When we can just go buy it at the storeNow the doctors and the lawyers and their money comes along
To build up their ranchettes and their million-dollar homes
And a hundred-eighty acres of sweat and blood and tears
Are just real estate lines crossin' through the years
And here comes California cross the mountains and the desert
On the highways that roll just like a river
Bringin' millions of people like a fast movin' train
To the fields that will never be the sameCHORUS
CHORUS
We can just go buy it at the store
Just go buy it at the store
© 2000 Red Cliffs Press Music (BMI)
All rights reserved. Used by permission
Track samples, lyrics, ordering details, and more are on line at
at Brenn Hill's web site and more at his MySpace site.
What A Man's Got To Do
Meet Me In McCall
Caffeine
The Onyx Mine
The Ballad Of Buffalo Brogan
Sweetwater Beach
What A Man's Got To Do
Oakbrush
She Loves Me Anyway
The Ballad Of Pogue And Elms
Casa Blanca
Debt
Jeremiah's Last Ride
The Gaping Jaws Of Hell
Into The Wind
Simple Things
Produced by Brenn Hill, 2007
Buckaroo Tattoo
Legacy Highway
Pickup Truck Café
Last Of The Redrock Riders
Dance Like The Fire
Pierce
My Old Chevy
Be Back In Texas
Mirror Of Your Eyes
One Hand In The Riggin'
Canadians
Little John
Lost River Outpost
EndangeredProduced by Eddie Schwartz, 2004
Call You Cowboy
Call You Cowboy
Roundup Fire
Lady Idaho
Nighthorse
Rewin The West
Cottonwood
Greys River Road
Wyoming Wind
Nights Like This
Fall Comin' On
Bitter Creek
Powder River Queen
Hill Family Song
On AvonNominated Traditional Western Album of the Year
by the Western Music Association, 2002Produced by Duke Davis, Bruce Innes, 2002
Trail Through Yesterday
Barrel Racin' Angel
Horseback Getaway
The Vaquero Song
Cowboy Cadillac
Burnin' Hair
Hand-Carved Heart
Franklin Canyon Dust
Lights Of Laramie
Daddy's Last Waltz
The Store
Next Lonely Drifter
The River That Never Runs Dry
Woodworker's Hand
Goodnight-Lovin' TrailNamed Album of the Year by
the Academy of Western Artists, 2001
Produced by Bruce Innes,
Ian Tyson, 2000
Deeper Than Mud
Produced by Bruce Innes, 1999
Rangefire
Produced by Duke Davis, 1997
Track samples, lyrics, ordering details, and more are on line at
at Brenn Hill's web site and more at his MySpace site.
“There’s the bond with the animals and the bond with the land. It’s something that we all long for,” Brenn says of the West’s appeal. “The cowboy is the guy that overcomes the odds and rides the bucking horse in the worst of weather in the toughest country. I think there’s a little bit of that kind of fortitude and attitude in all of us.”
WHAT A MAN’S GOT TO DO celebrates that maverick spirit. “Every record represents a chapter in my artistry and I don’t try to confine the art to a specific theme,” says Hill as he gazes out across a pasture watching his colt Stormy. “This one is a collection of songs that came from the last three or four years of my songwriting. If they make it past my ears, that’s the first test. If I believe in a song, if I think that it is really valid to this place and time, I’ll stand by it and carry it through.”
That passion and conviction comes from an early fascination with words and an appreciation for their impact. “I started writing when I was 14 or 15 years old,” recalls the young artist, who grew up reading famed American poets such as Robert Frost. “Writing poetry and short stories always seemed like an escape for me. I liked to find a blank piece of paper and start writing. I’d try to conjure up stories or to connect places, people, and events that were meaningful to me through emotions that everybody could relate to.”
Poetry and short stories soon evolved into songs. “Songwriting, to me, is very efficient,” says Brenn. “A song lasts three and a half to five minutes. You really present an idea, try to support it, build a melody around it and sort of leave it there for the listener to dig in. The best songwriters to me are those lyricists that present an idea and leave it out there for the audience to digest and interpret. I think that’s why my writing evolved into songwriting. Once I got a guitar in my hand, it just kind of fell together.”
At 16, he performed at the famed National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV. He recorded his first album when he was barely 20 and soon became a popular performer on the Western music circuit. His debut album, RANGEFIRE, earned Brenn the Rising Star Award from the Academy of Western Artists (AWA).
Subsequent albums, such as 1999’s DEEPER THAN MUD and 2000’s TRAIL THROUGH YESTERDAY continued to advance Brenn’s career, with the latter project earning the AWA’s Album of the Year. In 2001, he received the Western Music Association’s Crescendo Award, and earned a reputation as a young artist whose music filled a key niche. His songs paint a vivid portrait of the modern Mountain West and in doing so they bring that unique culture to music lovers in both rural and urban settings.
CALL YOU COWBOY, released in 2002, not only showcased his evolution as a songwriter and vocalist, but also included Cottonwood and On Avon, two finely crafted poems that demonstrated his gift for cowboy poetry. The accolades continued with the 2004 release of ENDANGERED, which prompted the AWA to name Brenn their male vocalist of the year. Recorded at Nashville’s famed Ocean Way studio with producer Eddie Schwartz, ENDANGERED’s sonic quality and the lyrical depth in the songs made it a landmark album for Brenn, one that garnered exposure beyond the Western genre as it was embraced by Americana radio as well as stations on the competitive Texas music circuit.
WHAT A MAN’S GOT TO DO showcases a gifted artist in full creative stride. Brenn’s writing is rife with cinematic imagery that connects the listener to the characters and places in his songs. Meet Me In McCall, penned for his uncle who passed away, boasts a memorable chorus that places the listener on horseback in some of the most beautiful terrain on earth. Caffeine is an up tempo romp that takes a look at modern man’s favorite energizer. “If you spend a lot of time on the road out West, you’ve got to have a little octane in your blood,” says Brenn with a smile.
As always, his music reflects the values of the American West, but where some of his previous outings sometimes leaned more toward the nostalgic and offered up a young man’s idealistic views on life and love, WHAT A MAN’S GOT TO DO reflects a more mature take on the complexities of this world. The Ballad Of Buffalo Brogan is a compelling love story with a lyric so vivid you can see the characters as their story unfolds. Yet it’s a tale about love and loss that doesn’t have a happy ending.
The songs on the album cover a broad range of topics and emotional territory. Now 30 and the father of two young sons, Brenn never lacks for inspiration. She Loves Me Anyway is a light-hearted portrait of a relationship in which the wife’s love overcomes the husband’s shortcomings. Among the album’s highlights is the poignant Simple Things, which celebrates what matters most in life. On the more somber side, The Ballad of Pogue and Elms chronicles the killings of two law enforcement officers in a notorious incident.
WHAT A MAN’S GOT TO DO marks the first time Brenn has produced his own album. “I know these songs more than anybody,” he says. “I hear them as I write them now and I guess that’s something that only comes from experience. I wanted to serve the function of producer myself to be true to the songs that I’ve written. I know I couldn’t have done that 10 years ago, but five or six records and having the opportunity to work with great producers who are songwriters themselves, like Ian Tyson and Eddie Schwartz, has allowed me to do that.”In addition to writing, singing and producing, Brenn is very hands on in other aspects of his career. He’s toured relentlessly over the past few years and developed a strong sense of how to connect with his audience. Such experience has bolstered his confidence and is evident throughout WHAT A MAN’S GOT TO DO. “I know who I’m making this music for and why I’m doing it,” he says. “All of that certainly was part of the approach here, even down to the title, WHAT A MAN’S GOT TO DO. That’s a title that is all about a sense of purpose.”
Brenn Hill is a young artist with a very well-defined sense of purpose and the talent to carry it through. “I describe myself as a little bit of George Strait, a little bit of Bruce Springsteen, and a whole lot of Ian Tyson and John Denver,” says Brenn, who has been inspired by many kinds of music, but has always known he wanted to make Western music his home. “The music is a way that I can try to bring that lifestyle back to the forefront of people’s hearts and minds, and it gives me a sense of purpose. I feel like I’m accomplishing something with my music. If I can activate the people who live this Western lifestyle as well as the people who are fascinated with this lifestyle, maybe I’ve accomplished something beyond making music.”
Brenn Hill's Web Site and Contact Information
Visit Brenn Hill's web site for more about him and his music, track samples, lyrics from his recordings, and additional features and visit his his MySpace site for full-length tracks and more.
And you can contact Brenn Hill through his manager:
Brian Ferriman
President
Savannah Music
Suite 214, 205 Powell Place
Brentwood, TN 37027
615-369-0810
brian@savannahmusic.net
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