ElizaBeth Hill
Biography
Click here for a .pdf versionListen to ElizaBeth's Recordings
ElizaBeth Hill is a singer-songwriter and storyteller from the Six Nations of Grand River territory near Brantford, Ontario. She is a gifted and experienced artist whose concert performances entertain and inspire audiences everywhere. ElizaBeth's songs are candid portraits with cultural impact where laughter and tears are common. With her dry wit and contemporary writing, there is a depth to ElizaBeth's music and personality that gives her audiences musical memories they can keep forever.
ElizaBeth is a Mohawk. One of the original nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, the Mohawk people are known as the People of the Flint. ElizaBeth is known for her honest and gentle manner in helping others. Her traditional Indian name refers to singing, and her use of music in helping one move along one's personal path in life is a unique and exhilirating experience. The roots of her music have grown in traditional country, and been schooled in the Nashville songwriting scene for more than a decade, and is steeped for a lifetime in her Iroquoian culture.
Released in February 2005, ElizaBeth's most recent CD, Peacemaker's Lullaby, was co-produced by Bob Doidge (Gordon Lightfoot, U2, Ani DiFranco, Bruce Cockburn) at his Grant Avenue Studios in Hamilton. Peacemaker's Lullaby features songs that are sung in the Mohawk language. For ElizaBeth, the study of the Kanienkeha:ka (Mohawk) language has been a journey through communities, dialects, history, and beliefs. Peacemaker's Lullaby was nominated in 2 categories at the 2005 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards including 'Album of the Year'.
Previously, ElizaBeth has recorded two independent releases When the Spirit Moves Me (1993) and Love That Strong (1999) which features an amazing duet with the legendary John Hiatt. When the Spirit Moves Me is an acoustic album which features lovely three-part harmonies and the much-requested song Steelworking Man. The CD Love That Strong received great acclaim while exposing the strength of heart, voice and song that is always experienced in ElizaBeth's performances. The CD also includes the wonderful "Story of the Rabbit and the Pussy Willows" as told by ElizaBeth. Love That Strong was nominated for Best Aboriginal Recording at the 2000 Juno Awards. She was nominated for "Best Female Artist" and "Best Producer" at the 2001 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards.
"You'll tingle all over and the soaring voice of ElizaBeth Hill will stay with you long after its over."
Toronto World Arts SceneElizaBeth has four tracks (two songs and two stories) on Legends-I Am An Eagle, an EMI/First Nations release in Canada, and also available on MCA/Curb Records in the US. She also was part of the CD Hearts of the Nation - Aboriginal Women's Voices in the Studio (1999 Sweetgrass Records) which received a 1999 Juno Nomination.
As testament to her versatility, you could find ElizaBeth facilitating vocal expression in workshops for all ages, or prov iding the vocal training and coaching for the first Aboriginal Dance Opera Bones which premiered in August 2001 at the Eric Harvey Theatre in Banff, Alberta. ElizaBeth has composed and recorded for dance theatre and film. She has scored music for independent filmmaker Shelley Niro whose film The Shirt was featured at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. ElizaBeth has recently completed her first one-act play, and is now working on an aboriginal opera that has been commissioned by Opera Hamilton.
"Her aboriginal spin on the forceful, folksy tradition suggests Buffy Sainte Marie, but also Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell and other roots divas." Geoff Chapman, Toronto Star
She has received high acclaim for her performances at folk music festivals in Texas, Arizona and Ontario. She has recorded for the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC and has appeared on CTV, as well as City TV's Breakfast Television in Toronto. ElizaBeth has performed with various artists and writers such as Buffy Ste. Marie, Bill Miller, Susan Jacks, and author/storytellers Joseph Bruchac and Gail Ross.
ElizaBeth Hill is versatile and can perform solo (accompanying herself on acoustic guitar), as a duo with world renowned cellist Kiki Misumi (also keyboards, backing vocals) or with Darrin Jamieson (vocals, guitar, percussion). She also performs in trio or quartet settings.
Other Notabale Achievements
We Pray With Tobacco is a one hour documentary film produced by Ismana Carney for Petroglyph Productions in November 1998 featuring Floyd “Red Crow” Westerman, actor/ singer & Elizabeth Hill, singer/songwriter. Told entirely from a Native American perspective, this documentary focuses on the cultural and ritual uses of tobacco. For thousands of years the original peoples of this land have cherished tobacco as the most sacred of all gifts given by the creator. It is holy...it sanctifies life and keeps everything in balance. Mainstream population are suffering from nicotine addiction. What happened? It’s all about the nature of one’s relationship to the world and to life itself, as this program explores.
The video is available from Coyote Press, P.O. Box 3377, Salinas, CA 93912 or E-Mail: orders@coyotepress.com
or from Shenandoah Film Productions, 538 G Street, Arcata, CA 95521 or E-Mail: shenfilm@northcoast.com
