Biography
Born Sidney Garza-Hillman on 21 December 1968 in Los Angeles, California, the musician took up guitar and vocals after drawing inspiration from his uncle, Chris Hillman of the Byrds. His own tastes, however, leaned toward the spare textures of early western music rather than the Byrds’ country-rock direction; he has singled out Hank Williams’ unadorned approach as his chief model. After receiving a philosophy degree from UCLA in 1991, he supported himself chiefly through acting while continuing to perform. Roughly a decade of various Los Angeles projects led him to assemble the Sid Hillman Quartet. By the middle of the following decade the group had gained wider notice, although Hillman was still perceived primarily as an actor who also made music. Early in the 2000s the quartet opened shows for Mojave 3 and Tercero, and Hillman himself toured solo with Neil Halstead; the band has since played across North America and Europe. Hillman writes most of the quartet’s repertoire, which often carries an undercurrent of melancholy. Alongside him have been Raymond Richards on electric and pedal steel guitar, Jim Faith on guitar, Jim Cheydleur on bass, and Michael Tacklender on drums. Several of the band’s tracks have appeared in film and television scores. On screen he has also taken one-off roles in episodes of The Norm Show (1999), Freaks And Geeks (2000), and ER (2001).