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Wednesday, September 9, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Judith Hill to make Sisters debut at Close to Home 2
By Ceili Cornelius
Correspondent
Judith Hill is known for
her soulful lyrics and pow-
erhouse voice. She has been
praised by Rolling Stone
for her “stellar powerhouse
vocals.”
“In addition to penning
and performing her own
material, Judith — who wrote
her first song at age 4 — has
backed such artists as Stevie
Wonder and the late Michael
Jackson,” her website notes.
Hill was originally going
to be a part of the 2020
lineup of the Sisters Folk
Festival but will now be fea-
tured in the smaller socially-
distanced festival concert
event, Close to Home 2.
Judith Hill grew up sur-
rounded by music. She was
born into a musical family:
Both her parents were musi-
cians. Hill grew up listening
to a lot of soul and R&B-
style music whose influ-
ence can be heard in her
music. Hill attended Biola
University in California and
got a degree in composition.
“After college I went
around gigging with my
own music and singing and
worked with other musicians
on the road,” she said.
Before his death, she
worked on Michael Jackson’s
“This Is It” tour as his duet
performer and sang during
his memorial service.
Hill’s passion is bringing
music to people as well as
writing music that inspires.
For Hill, that inspira-
tion comes from having an
emotional experience and
moment that can only be
described in a song.
“It is the ultimate high
when a song perfectly
describes an emotion or a
feeling that nothing else can,”
she said.
Hill writes story songs
and enjoys finding a good
groove.
“It is exciting when you
find a good groove on the
piano and guitar and then I
write the music from there,”
she said.
“The range of my musical
influence goes from soul, to
classic rock, to funk flavor-
ing here and there, but it all
sounds pretty soulful.”
A few years back, Hill
was a contestant on the hit
competition show “ The
Voice.”
For Hill, the experience
was really enjoyable and, she
said, “just fun.”
“I made a lot of cool
fr iends and the show
sort of feels like a sum-
mer camp with everyone
always together working on
songs and music with their
coaches,” she said.
Hill was a part of Adam
Levine’s team and was elimi-
nated before the finale of the
show but still counts it as a
valuable and fun experience.
“It was really cool to see
how you are perceived by
others on a competition show
like this and it helped me to
grow,” she said.
During the coronavi-
rus pandemic, Hill has been
keeping busy with studio
projects and writing a wide
variety of songs over the past
few months.
“I have been in the studio
a lot and working on new
music,” she said. Hill has
done a few virtual shows, but
they aren’t the same for her
as she is used to interacting
with the audience.
“The Zoom concert is not
PHOTO BY JOE LEMKE
like a stage, at all. It is more
intimate in a way, but it is
different,” she said.
Hill is planning on com-
ing out with new music in
the near future including
singles and a new full-length
album that is in the works.
Her European and U.S. tour
dates were either postponed
or canceled for the foresee-
able future until at least 2021.
Hill was slotted to play
the festival this year, but is
now a part of the modified,
socially-distanced folk festi-
val event, Close to Home 2.
She has played Portland
before, but has never been to
Central Oregon.
“I love Oregon and I am
very happy to be able to con-
nect with people and share
music together again for this
event,” she said.
Tickets to the live event
are sold out, but SFF will be
broadcasting a high-quality
livestream. Access is $30,
and money raised will help
support the nonprofit dur-
ing COVID-19. Socially-
distanced watch parties
encouraged! To sign up for
access, go to https://cth2
livestream.eventbrite.com.
September 30.
Purchasers will get an
email with instructions on
how to access the show, each
buyer will have a unique,
unshareable code to enter to
access the stream. Each day,
viewers will log in to the
livestream with the unique
code to view the perfor-
mances for that evening. It
will be a private, embed-
ded Vimeo-hosted video
that they can maximize to
their screen, share to smart
TVs, etc.
“This time around, we’re
really excited to have the
support of the Sisters Area
Chamber of Commerce to
help deliver this program-
ming to the SFF community,
wherever they may be,” said
Munro.
The Sisters Chamber is
a presenting sponsor for the
livestream, and some of their
television commercial spots
about Sisters will be running
during set breaks through-
out the weekend furthering
Sisters’ exposure beyond the
community itself.
“Livestreaming is some-
thing we never thought we’d
get into, but feel it’s currently
a useful technology to serve
our faithful fans as well as
grow our audience for the
future,” said Ehle.
The livestream event will
begin the first day of the fes-
tivities, Friday, September 11,
and run through the entire
weekend. Watch live or any-
time before September 30.
Access to the livestream is
just $30 for all three days.
For information, a broad-
cast schedule, or to purchase
access, visit https://cth2
livestream.eventbrite.com.
Livestreaming Close to Home 2
By Ceili Cornelius
Correspondent
Viewers around the world
will get a taste of roots music
from Sisters this weekend.
SFF is putting on a
live concert event — and
a livestream of the event
— on the weekend of the
original 2020 festival dates,
September 11-13. The con-
cert is called Close to Home 2.
Close to Home 2 will
be a socially-distanced out-
door concert at the Sisters
Artworks venue.
Performers on the bill
for the weekend include:
Judith Hill; John Craigie;
Thunderstorm Artis; AJ Lee
& Blue Summit; Kristen
Grainger & True North;
Jenner Fox Band; Caleb
Klauder and Reeb Willms;
and Central Oregon’s own,
The Parnells.
Each day will be a differ-
ent variation of these artists.
(See daily lineup on page 16.)
“The Close to Home
concerts are meant to be that,
attracting fans from the area
as well as music artists that
don’t need to fly or travel real
far,” said SFF Operations
Manager Dave Ehle.
Not only is the festival
putting on a live concert
event in person, they are
also providing a high-qual-
ity livestream for the event.
Working with Keith Banning
from Grange Recorders
on the sound engineering,
viewers can expect to hear
every note of every artist’s
song. Brian Cash of Alpine
Internet will provide high-
quality video resolution with
different camera angles to
enable viewers to feel as if
they are at the event.
“Both Close to Home
concerts that we’ve done this
year sold out very quickly,
so we know there’s a pent-
up demand for live music
right now,” said Executive
Director Crista Munro. “We
also know that there are a lot
of people who feel very con-
nected to the Sisters Folk
Festival all over the country
— and world — that can’t
be here in person, and it was
important to us that we cre-
ate an opportunity to include
them, too.”
“ With COVID, we’re
not wanting to encourage
travel from outside the area,
and attendance numbers are
limited,” said Ehle. “Given
that, providing a livestream
gives our wider Folk Festival
audience an opportunity to
participate in addition to
expanding our audience to
wide-reaching places so folks
can see what we do, as well
as support the artists through
greater exposure as their live-
lihoods have been seriously
impacted.”
The Festival has had sig-
nificant success providing
livestream events.
“We proved with our first
two live streamed events —
My Own Two Hands in May
and the first Close to Home
concert on August 1 — that
we have the brain trust right
here in Sisters to be able to
put out a professionally-
produced broadcast to the
world,” said Munro.
“We’re proud of what
we’ve reimagined for live
concerts, given the state
requirements and health con-
siderations, and think we’re
doing it in an innovative and
safe way,” said Ehle.
Patrons can purchase
the livestream access for
$30, which gives access to
the whole weekend’s worth
of performances. It will be
available for viewing until
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