Cleveland, Ohio Guitar Builder Freddy Hill Quit Music for 10 Years to Raise His Son. At 50, He Just Made His First Solo Album

Cleveland, Ohio singer-songwriter Freddy Hill walked away from music for a decade when his son was born. Now 50, the Stow native has finished August, his first solo album, and celebrated it with a release party at Spotlight Cleveland on Oct. 17.

If you've spent a Wednesday night on Cleveland's near West Side, you may already know him. Hill hosts a weekly jam night at Spotlight and holds a monthly residency at Brothers Lounge. He also builds guitars by hand.

From grunge kid to alt-country road dog

Hill grew up in Stow, a Summit County suburb between Akron and Cleveland. His high school years landed in the middle of the grunge era, and he told Cleveland Scene he was a huge Soundgarden fan. His all-time favorite band, though, is Van Halen.

At Ohio University, he discovered the blues. In the early 2000s, he moved back to Northeast Ohio for grad school at Kent State, befriended singer-songwriter Patrick Sweany and other local players, and then quit school to get serious about music. That run included several years in the alt-country band Roger Hoover and the Whiskeyhounds, which released records and toured the region.

The decade he stepped away

Around the same time, Hill started a woodworking business. He eventually parted ways with the Whiskeyhounds, and when his son arrived, he stopped performing almost entirely. For about 10 years, his only gigs were ukulele sing-alongs for his kid.

The woodworking stuck. Hill works out of the Screw Factory, a Lakewood building full of artists and makers. A segment on Ideastream's Applause followed his move from furniture to building acoustic guitars there.

The jam night that pulled him back

In 2017, Ryan Foltz of Cleveland Audio talked Hill into signing up for Lottery League, the local event that randomly pairs musicians into new bands. A bandmate from that project, Jess Horvath, then introduced him to Cleveland's jam-night circuit.

Hill told Cleveland Scene the jam scene "changed my life." He rediscovered the guitar, started writing again, and within a few years was running a jam night of his own.

How August got made

Hill wrote about 20 songs, aiming to record 10. He rehearsed once with drummer Mic Fox, then headed to Dark Current, the studio run by local musician and producer John Panza.

The result, per Cleveland Scene, sounds like 1950s Chess Records blues filtered through a modern rock lens: loose, woozy and live-sounding. Hill admits the record sounds like two guys who rehearsed the night before, and says he's proud of it anyway. He hopes there's enough interest to justify a second album, because he wants back in the studio.

Why it hits

Hill's story isn't about chasing fame at 50. It's about a working craftsman who set music down for family, found his way back through community, and made the record anyway. For anyone who ever shelved a passion, August is proof the door stays open.

Where to listen and follow

Catch Hill live at Spotlight Cleveland's Wednesday jam night (spotlightcle.com) or his monthly Brothers Lounge residency.

Sources

Cleveland Scene — "Cleveland Singer-Songwriter Freddy Hill To Release Debut Album"
Ideastream/PBS Applause — "Guitar maker Freddy Hill and Judaic artist Nancy Schwartz-Katz"