Top Hill Recording Podcast

Nectar Valley is a young four-piece string band from Owensboro, Kentucky. The band formed from a passion for music and just picking around for fun, slowly evolving into what it has become today. Nectar Valley's own take on music has influences from Bluegrass, Folk, Psychedelic Rock, and Blues.

Vincent Gleeson is a singer-songwriter from Lexington Kentucky who plays an interesting mix of folk and jazz. Vincent primarily sings songs about the struggles of addiction, love, and poverty but also has some songs of happiness thrown in the mix. His influences include Nick Drake, Skip Spence, Coleman Hawkins, and Elliott Smith. Vincent honed his finger picking style through years of practicing t...

Collins Black started off his music journey in Bedford, Kentucky under his given name Shawn Brandon. He began performing with family at church and around his local community from the age of five and as a soloist at school.  Collins taught himself guitar and began writing music at 16 and landed a record deal with Abbey Road Nashville by 19. After he was released in Nashville, he attended Eastern Ke...

Born, raised, and based in Eastern Kentucky, Bedford is heading to the national music scene with something new in their pockets and something vintage in their souls. This band is able to capture lightning - put it in a bottle - and share it with the world as a familiar yet, unique sound.  This unequivocal four-piece group has made it their personal mission to re-ignite the fiery passion of Ro...

Andrew Wakefield is a songwriter, guitarist, and singer based in Asheville, NC with an eclectic catalogue of compositions ranging from guitar-driven bluegrass to folk, old-time, newgrass, rock, americana, and more. He is a contributing member of The Well Drinkers and former member of Supper Break and Cynefin. 
 Career highlights include performing at Merlefest, performing with Molly Tuttle, Ketch...

The Highlanders are a five-piece alternative band with a gritty roots sound, but don't consider themselves a country act anymore. "We definitely started playing standard country. We’re from Kentucky so we thought that’s what we had to play. As we kept progressing we finally were able to blend in a little bit of ourselves and our influences," said singer and guitarist Colin O’Daniel. The group firs...

Along with meeting each other through different Louisville bands we had played with over the years, (The Last Origin, Blank Agenda, The Balrogs) 7 out of our 9 members met through attended the University of Louisville School of Music, studying everything from jazz drumming to orchestral conducting. John, Misaki, and William met through playing in the UofL symphony orchestra together while Kenny, M...

Frankie Leo is a singer/songwriter who currently lives in Louisville, KY with his wife McKenzie and two boys, Rowan and Dawson. He grew up in the Shenandoah Valley of Staunton Virginia where he started to write and record music in the study room of the house where he was raised. Since then, he has released a handful of records and songs, a few of which you can access online today on most streaming...

Curb Records recording artist FILMORE made his major label debut in 2020 with the release of State I’m In . He has quickly amassed more than 245 million career streams. Prior to being signed, the Wildwood, Missouri native was the first independent artist to be featured on Spotify’s Hot Country cover. FILMORE’s catchy hooks and clever lyrics have since caught the attention of The New York Times , N...

Coot Crabtree's music is about heart and pain, and the joy of life lived along the rough edges and backpages of the Hoosier heartland.  He's a poet, he's a punk, he's a hillbilly, a hobo, a folk singer, an outlaw, a bluesman, and most of all, an acolyte of the great truth tellers from all corners of American roots music.  It's all in there in the mix, whether he's delivering one of his b...

Cincinnati, Ohio: Where the south meets the Midwest. It’s also the best way to describe the music of Kentucky-born Singer/Songwriter Nicholas Johnson; Southern roots meets Midwest rust belt rock. On his first new album in two years, “Back Upstate” puts all of that on display by crafting a mix of heartbreakingly genuine songs and genre-bending rockers in the spirit of songwriting heroes like Tom Pe...

Dan, Neil, and Brad discuss dedication, commitment, performance anxiety, confidence, competition, and other parallels between athletics and music performance.  Dan Zlotnick has been called the “Americana voice of Westchester [County, NY]”.  He writes songs that make any stage feel like your living room. A former independent minor league baseball player, Dan turned to music full-time in 2...

Dusty Bo drops by Top Hill to chat about his latest tours. The Kentucky bred Alt-Rock artist delivers passionate performance with edgy riffs, vocal prowess and blues-charged guitar solos. For Dusty, the choice has always been to never stop the pursuit of exploring the terrain in which he expresses best. With influences such as Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd he possesses the h...

Adrian grew up in a single parent household in Anderson, California, a small Northern California valley town. He always knew music was his passion in life. Adrian met his father for the first time at the age of 13 and suddenly understood where he got his drive for music. He went home after that meeting, taught himself guitar, and started writing songs. He grew up on hearing Willie Nelson, Johnny C...

Oliver Sayani is a singer songwriter, guitarist, and musician who has carved his unique style out of Appalachian music, jazz and rock n roll. A member of the Heartland Songwriters Association of Kentucky, he has written over 70 songs, recorded multi-instrumentally on several albums, including 3 albums of his original music while managing and fronting the band Blind Feline. In addition he has compo...

From trio to duo; from being Southern Halo to becoming American Blonde, the Morris sisters have stuck together through thick and thin. With recent rebranding, they are casting off any preconceived notions as to who they should be and are fully embracing who they are - a powerhouse of talent; invigorated, motivated and fully realized. There were several catalysts behind this transformation, but Nat...

The Musical Imprint embodies the magic of music with the science of brain connectivity in book form. It was inspired by the connection between two seemingly unrelated women: Melissa Bollea Rowe, a songwriter and publisher from Nashville and Dr. Sarah Allen, a Neuropsychologist and speaker from New Jersey. Put them together, and you have stories based on the science and emotion of music - a musical...

Jacob Head is a Louisville-based multi-instrumentalist, performer, teacher, worship leader, and board-certified music therapist. His abilities in music stem from a young age when he was gifted a set of drums for Christmas. Jacob began learning the violin at the age of 9 and continued to pursue music through the keyboard, guitar, mandolin, and various other stringed instruments. He began leading wo...

Dylan Weber-Owens is an instrumental folk guitarist from Louisville, KY. Blending techniques and motifs from various guitar styles new and old, he brings forward a mixture that feels at once fresh and careworn, impish and melancholic. By connecting with his audience, their triumphs and troubles, Weber-Owens ultimately hopes that his wordless music can resonate in a way that makes people feel more...

TVLO is a three piece Prog Pop band from Louisville KY. Dan Dilamarter sings lead and plays guitar. Gregg Rochman plays bass and sings. Jonathan Schwartz is the drummer. Dan writes the songs and the band works on the arrangements together covering a wide range of folk, prog, funk, jazz and rock rhythms that feature some gymnastic vocal harmonies. TVLO is ambitious, heartfelt, and lyric driven, wit...

Hailing from Southern Indiana, Elements of Sound draws inspiration from rock, folk, pop, blues and hip hop. Justin Miller started with acoustic guitar and beatboxing on the streets of Louisville, Kentucky before moving to looping and becoming a multi-instrumentalist. The heart of The Elements of Sound is a three piece band consisting of Noel Calilung on bass and Nate King on drums. Justin often jo...

Jack J Hutchinson is a London based blues rock guitarist and songwriter. Described by Classic Rock Magazine as “a real rock contender”, he has toured internationally, sharing stages with acts such as ZZ Top, Bad Company, Kris Barras Band and Blackberry Smoke. Jack recently released his new 4 track ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ EP mixed by legendary producer Kevin Shirley (Black Crowes, Iron Maiden, Led...

Debuting in 2022, Spinoza is comprised of long-time collaborators, Brodie Hillegas (multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer) and Austin Miller (writer, drums, and percussion). Spinoza's first single, "10 Spaces" (released on April 29, 2022) is described by Brodie as "a classic, Bill-Withers-esque love ballad, mixed with a narrative that focuses on a twisted outsider's unhealthy ideals of l...

In the words of Chenille O' Keel:   "Kevin Bois and Christopher DeRome; two men working at the same local diner. Kevin was a short haired food runner and Christopher something else. Back then Bois wielded a white fender. One wintery afternoon, Kevin showed up on Christopher's porch. The two have  been playing together for many years. Sometimes It screams with a thunder that might make yo...

Greg Tripure is a native Kentuckiana artist who is a founding member (rhythm guitar and backing vocalist) of Sub-Urban Situation. Tripure has always written songs on the side for himself, but it was not until that pandemic that he started to branch out and perform solo shows online and eventually back in front of people. With over 20 years of songwriting experience, Greg draws from multiple influe...