Road To Hope CD - The Band

With Bill Adams on acoustic guitar and slide, Michael Bielski on djembe and percussion, Carol Elliot on cello, Matt Griffin on harmonica, Rob Lampe on electric guitar and lap steel, Mike Robertson on bass, Loyd Warden on drums and Hilary herself on piano, guitar, violin, mandolin, and vocals, Road To Hope takes you on a journey.

Hilary Scott -- Hilary Scott weaves lyrical and musical tapestries with a raw emotional edge. Jeff Dame of Northeast In-Tune has this to say about Hilary and her music: "Hilary has the potential to be as big as the likes of Alanis Morisette, Tori Amos, or Sheryl Crow. Listen to her now and you can 'I've been in from the beginning.' MORE...

Mike Robertson -- I've been playing for about 30 years, but almost all of that has been local and regional. Until I met Hilary, I had never run into a musician who inspired me to think beyond that. Of course, like everyone else, I recognized immediately that this was a talent destined to inspire the world with her songs and her voice. I introduced myself as soon as she finished playing a little two or three song set in between acts at a local club in Columbia. BA was accompanying her and I had spent a few years in a local group with him, so he recommended me. Lucky for me, she gave me a shot and I've been her Midwest USA bassist ever since. There was never any hesitation for me. I could feel the fit musically. MORE....

Carol Elliot -- Carol has played the cello from age 10. She began taking lessons in elementary school, when it seemed attractive to be excused from class to have weekly cello lessons in the East Elementary School library. Her only career aspiration since she was in high school was to become to be a full-time cellist in a paid professional symphony orchestra. With that goal in mind, she received degrees in cello performance from Oberlin College and Northern Illinois University. After completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees, she auditioned for several orchestras. Although she got a summer job playing in the “pit” orchestra for the Muny Opera in St Louis, it was necessary to find a second calling in information technology, which she happily pursues on a full-time basis. As a free-lance musician, she is a member of the Springfield (Missouri) Symphony and has performed in the Odyssey Chamber Music Series in Columbia, Missouri, since its inaugural season in 2004. Carol’s involvement in the Road to Hope project -- MORE...

Bill Adams -- The most vivid part for me, about the Road To Hope Project, was the learning of the new songs and slowly working them up, creating all the parts, trying them out live, and tweaking and tweaking till everyone said ….yeah, that’s it...The fun part is coming up with a guitar phrase or chord structure or lead line , that melds into the song, when it just flows easily into the structure….and then you see the smile on Hilary’s face and you knew you had a winner…..but the flip side of that is trying to remember the part again, if it came from a brief inspiration….and that was one reason we always recorded the practices….to catch those parts and have a reference point…the exciting thing about this band, is that it is a “live” band…..not a bunch of seasoned studio pro’s , but musicians who play from the heart and for the sheer joy of playing Hil’s music and in a live content…..MORE...

Rob Lampe -- in 1964, at the age of 10, Robbie (Lava) Lampe asked his mother to buy him a guitar. She said, "No, you have to learn to play a respectable instrument first." But after two years of strumming the viola like a guitar, MORE...

Matt Griffin -- Originally from Jefferson City, MO, Griff started playing harmonica in his late teens. He was drawn to the "harp" for it's small size and large sound. Listening to the blues greats like Little Walter, Big Walter Horton, Junior Wells,and others inspired him to seek out that haunting tone. Other players like Howard Levy, Peter Ruth and John Popper influenced his phrasing and structure. Combining that fat blues tone MORE...

Loyd Warden -- Loyd Warden has lived and performed in cities and countries all around the United States and the world. He grew up in Kansas City, Mo., and started performing on drum set professionally at the age of 15. He went on the road with a touring group at 19 that traveled all over the southeast United States. He settled in Houston, Texas for two years before entering William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. MORE...

Michael Bielski -- With influences ranging from the Grateful Dead to Peter Gabriel, Michael beats a new path with his drum. The first member of the band to meet Hilary Scott, he would say he's not a musician. And yet for not "being a musician", MORE...