Billy "Harp" Hamilton's style is a funky hybrid, a subtly unique musical cocktail comprising early electric blues, 60s soul, and old-school R&B, topped off with a garnish of swinging jazz on occasion.

11 MP3 Songs
BLUES: Blues Vocals, JAZZ: Jazz Vocals



Details:
In 1965, Billy Hamilton began playing music in his hometown of Hamilton, Ohio, USA, with his first band, The Morticians. When they played their first job, a party in a friendâs basement, they knew three songs: âHouse of the Rising Sun,â âSatisfaction,â and âPeter Gunn,â all of which they performed as instrumentals. When someone finally came up with a microphone, Billy Hamilton put down his guitar to sing âout frontâ and more or less remained in that position, playing harmonica and occasional rhythm guitar, for the next 40 years.

Through the late 60s and early 70s, he fronted various rock cover bands in the Cincinnati area, working outside music in the late 70s, when the popularity of âdiscoâ clubs made work for local live bands scarce.

In early 1980s, he formed Derriere, a rock/pop band that was very popular in the Cincinnati-Dayton area for a few years. With this group, Hamilton recorded his first 45-rpm single in 1982. The âAâ side was a cover version of the Beau Brummelsâ hit âJust a Little,â while the âBâ side featured one of Hamiltonâs early compositions, âGive It Hell.â The recorded was released âvery quietlyâ on Hamiltonâs own Derriere label.

In 85, Hamilton moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he stumbled onto radio station WQBH-AM and began listening exclusively to the blues records spun live at local clubs by DJ Jay Butler. âSince that time, I never really played anything but blues, soul, and R&B,â says Hamilton. Feeling that he had found his proper niche in music, he began listening to more and more blues masters and worked to develop his harp skills, which to that point had been âextremely average.â

In 1987, Billy Hamilton went to London, England, where the Billy Hamilton Band played 60s soul and R&B in local pubs. They recorded a few demos, which they shopped around to British labels. But the record companies at that time were more interested in âimageâ bands like A Flock of Seagulls or Milli Vanilli. âThey told us we were good,â says Hamilton, âmaybe âtoo good.ââ

The early â90s saw Billy Hamilton return to the Cincinnati-Dayton, Ohio, area, where he fronted the White Boys Blues Band for a few years. They were very successful on a local level, but their demos of Hamiltonâs originals elicited little response from U.S. blues record labels.

Except for a very brief stint with the Long Island Blues Band in New York City in 2000, Hamilton worked outside music until 2001, when he founded Billy Hamilton and the Lowriders in Cincinnati. This group played blues, soul, and R&B, including an increasing number of Hamiltonâs originals, throughout southwestern Ohio and northern Kentucky for five years. With the Lowriders, Hamilton recorded three CDs: Blues/Soul/R&B (2002), Live at the Oxford Music Festival (2005), and Campesino Blues (2006)âall on his own Derriere label. The first two records include a mix of covers and Hamiltonâs originals, while the third is Hamiltonâs first all-original record. His song âMy Baby Must Have Diedâ was included on a compilation CD released by British label Funkee Fish in 2004, while another, âI Sold Your Ring Today,â is featured on a 2006 CD sampler from California jazz-blues label Network-Pacific.

Armed with these recordings, much unrecorded original material, and 40 years of experience, Billy Hamilton left America in January of 2006 to pursue his career in Europe. He is currently based in Bratislava, Slovakia, a city centrally located within reasonable traveling distance of Italy, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and other European centers where American blues, soul, and R&B thrive. In addition to club dates in Bratislava, he tours regulary in Poland and is slated to record an album on Drycastle Records in 2007 with Italian group the Blues Collective. Billy Hamilton may be contacted and records may be ordered through his website, www.thelowridersband.com. Booking inquiries may be directed to lowridersband@hotmail.com.