Bob Hillman

Bob Hillman, based in San Francisco, creates folk-rock marked by an offbeat sensibility, understated wit, and a gift for incisive, inventive lyrics. He relocated to New York in 1994. Daytime responsibilities there involved coaching teenagers through the SAT and comparable standardized exams, while evenings were devoted to club appearances throughout Manhattan. Several years on the city’s singer/songwriter circuit eventually drew the interest of Tommy West, onetime member of the 1960s/1970s duo Cashman & West, whose credits included collaborations with Jim Croce, the Partridge Family, and Spanky & Our Gang. In 1999 West produced Hillman’s debut album, Playing God, for the small independent Sliced Bread label headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb. After signing with Brave New Records’ Morada imprint in 2002, he released Welcome to My Century. The year after that, he suspended his music activities to enroll in business school, then spent the ensuing decade raising his sons while building a thriving career in marketing. A layoff in 2014, along with renewed contact with longtime friend and fellow songwriter Peter Case, motivated a return to the studio. Case produced the resulting crowd-funded Lost Soul, which featured contributions from Joseph Arthur and appeared in 2015.