ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9611040004
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-18 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
It might have been the hundredth time or the thousandth time Jeff Hill had heard the song, but it seemed like the first.
He was hearing his voice for the first time on the radio, singing a song a buddy had written eight years earlier.
Since his high school days, Hill has spent 15 years playing in country-rock bands and gospel groups around the region.
Some things are worth the wait.
``I had just done an interview on WPUV [in Pulaski] on a Saturday morning,'' said Hill, ``and on my way back from the station on Route 11, I heard it for the first time. It was a thrill.''
The song was ``Come on Home,'' a contemporary Christian number that earned Hill first place in the Christian Country Music Awards national talent show last year.
The song is getting play nationwide, including on Christian music stations WPUV in Pulaski and WPAR in Roanoke. It's also on the CD ``Circuit Rider, Volume 8,'' a compilation of Christian country songs on the Marion-based Circuit Rider label.
A ballad about forgiveness and longing, ``Come on Home'' not only is a religious song, it could be the title to Hill's biography.
Having mostly abandoned the Christian music scene several years ago in favor of standard country fare, Hill, 32, is again singing religious songs as he did as a youth growing up in the Wythe County community of Austinville and as a Radford University student.
``I really drifted away from playing Christian music,'' said Hill, a keyboardist and lead singer for Festus Gunslinger, a local country-rock band. ``I had played Christian music through college, but secular country took so much time.''
Enter Clestine Taylor, grandmother of Hill's girlfriend, Jodi Sheffey. Taylor, a faithful watcher of religious television, had seen the ad for the Christian Country Music Awards contest and wanted Hill to enter. He obliged only to please her.
``I half-heartedly entered it,'' he said. ``I didn't think I had any business entering it. I didn't want to be hypocritical [since he hadn't played Christian music in a while]. My girlfriend's grandmother is so spiritually centered, godly and loving. If she says something to me, I believe it.''
He chose ``Come on Home,'' a song written in 1987 by Tony Edmonds, a chum from Hill's days at Fort Chiswell High. The two had played in a Christian group called Hosanna in the late '80s.
``It was one of the first songs Tony ever wrote,'' Hill said. ``That song came to mind. It's such a great song. It had stuck in my mind for eight years. I always remembered the words and music.''
Hill charts the progress of ``Come on Home'' from his Radford apartment by calling and writing radio stations across the country (``What I need is a fax,'' he said). He regularly sends out promotional material to these stations and he knows the song has been played as far away as Oklahoma and Texas.
It took a long time for ``Come on Home'' to receive its due, perhaps because it took Hill a long time to realize that he wanted to make music his life's work.
He learned to play Tommy Dorsey's ``Boogie Woogie'' on the piano at age 9. By 17 he was in his first band, Sunshine Express. For a couple of years, Hill was working in bars he wasn't old enough to get into, otherwise.
``One of the first shows I ever played was in a bar,''
said Hill, who added he grew up in a household where alcohol was forbidden. ``The only way to play was to assure the club owner I wouldn't drink.''
For three years, Sunshine Express played what Hill described as ``more secular music country or rock 'n' roll.'' Audience members did not hesitate to make their own requests.
``Free Bird!''
``That's a classic,'' said Hill. ``Anything by Lynyrd Skynyrd, you can't really go wrong. We'd play three [Skynyrd] songs and it'd never be enough.''
His music career waned in the mid '80s when he went to Wytheville Community College to study electronics. ``I thought I wanted to get out of school, get a job and make some money.''
He did two of those things: got a degree from the college in '84, then got a job as a technician at Sprague Electric. He was laid off before he could do the third thing, which was make some money.
He worked at the community college for a while before friends talked him into going back to school to study music. He filled out an application to Radford University on a whim and was accepted into its music program. Trouble was, he was short on cash.
In fall 1985, Hill drove to Radford with his life savings - about $500 - in his pocket. He had hoped to get a grant to make up the rest of the tuition, which was about $800 for off-campus students.
``I got to Radford and said, `I've got no business being here,''' he said. ``I drove all the way back to [Interstate] 81, turned around and came back.''
At the registrar's office, ``I told the lady I had applied for financial aid,'' but had not received any, he said. ``She looked in a file, saw my name and said I had a $375 Pell grant.
``I even had a little money left over for books.''
He worked his way through school, taking time off in 1988 to work a second-shift job at Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corp., where he still is employed. He received his degree in music business in 1991.
``That [degree] has helped,'' he said. ``Since I won the contest, I've been dealing with people on the next level - booking agents, record companies. I have an understanding of the business.''
He now copyrights songs through his own publishing company, Redaugust Musicworks.
He won the Christian Country Music Awards contest and a cache of prizes that included 10 hours of recording studio time, inclusion on the Circuit Rider CD and $600 worth of handmade clothing. He hopes to use the studio time to record an album of contemporary Christian songs by year's end.
Meanwhile, he still plays most weekends with Festus Gunslinger, which he joined in 1992. The group has gained notoriety in these parts by opening for the likes of Billy Ray Cyrus, Charlie Daniels, David Lee Murphy, Neil McCoy and Toby Keith.
Hill plans to stay in the band while exploring his options in Christian music.
``The guys in the band have been very supportive of me,'' he said. ``They said, anything they can do to help, just ask. I have my foot in the door with these guys.
``With secular country, you've got to be in Nashville and be in people's faces all the time. Christian music isn't like that. It's spiritual. I like that.''
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Jeff Hill met one of his musical heroes last Februaryby CNBin Nashville - the late Bill Monroe. Monroe was known as the "Father
of Blugrass Music." 2. Hill performs during an appearance (right) at
the Salem Fair in July. Photos
courtesy of Jeff Hill. color.