"A Friendly Reunion"
Willie Hill
Composed by Willie Hill
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Daddy B. Nice's Original Profile:
The son of a musician and sharecropper, Willie Hill had an itinerant childhood until his father started a business in Albany, Georgia and settled there. Hill's father Homer was a popular piano
player and gospel singer who entertained
with a group called the Singing Angels.
"I had one little song that I used to
do," Willie told a reporter for the
"National Clothesline" in December 2010. "It was called 'I Got Heaven on My Mind.' They had a little theater down in Tifton, Georgia called the Roxy Theater, and they were on the show there with
Sam Cooke and
the Soul Stirrers.
"I remember he said, 'I'm going to let my little son come up and sing a song.' The place
was packed."
5-year-old Willie won over the crowd and the King of Soul, Sam Cooke, too and so began "a lifelong mission to sing onstage."
Sixty years later, Willie Hill is a well-kept secret to all but a few Southern Soul aficionados, with a hard-scrabble career of scaled-down dreams and a lifetime of musical seasoning.
His one-of-kind signature ballad,
"A Friendly Reunion," was released in 1997 to little notice, and reprinted again in 2007, once again to scant response. (Critics--Jus' Blues, Blues Critic--touted Willie Hill, but deejays and fans weren't as receptive.) And yet, "A Friendly Reunion" is one of the most affecting ballads to come out of the world of Southern Soul in the last twenty years.
Hill's "A Friendly Reunion" has much in common with the gentle, 50's-era
Pat Boone show tune that accompanied the
Gary Cooper film, "Friendly Persuasion," from its title to its wafting-cloud-in-a-blue-sky tempo and delicacy.
It also owes something to the country-western stars Willie Hill listened to as a kid growing up--
Hank Williams Sr.,
Ferlin Husky,
Jimmy Dean,
Marty Robbins and
Hank Snow.
Johnnie Taylor used to do these kinds of ballads--"It Just Don't Pay To Get Up In The Morning" comes to mind.
Ronnie Lovejoy--of course--with "Sho' Wasn't Me." Another of Hill's songs, "When Will I Stop Loving You," recalls
Z.Z. Hill's "Cheating In The Next Room." For some reason, the ballads of the younger generation just don't sound the same.
Hill has a vocal tone like fine old hickory sanded to a smooth sheen, every syllable drips with goodness and humility, and yet on the phrases building to climaxes, Hill summons surprising power and scope.
"Now you belong to someone else,
And the only thing left
Is to say to myself,
'It's just a friendly reunion.'"
"A Friendly Reunion" is a slice-of-life snapshot of running into an old love and experiencing all the pain of what might have been. While it's a common enough subject I can't think of it ever being rendered more effectively. When Willie sings them, the words signify.
"We can never be together, baby.
We each belong to another."
Listen to Willie Hill singing "Friendly Reunion" Live on YouTube.
This live version doesn't do justice to the recorded version, a sample of which is available at
"A Friendly Reunion" on the I'M A MAN ON A MISSION CD.
"Friendly Reunion" isn't the only good song Willie Hill ever recorded. "I'm A Man On A Mission" is a stellar tune, with a
Theodis Ealey-like, galloping momentum. "Mission" showcases Hill in an uptempo style in which he's just as confident and competent.
"You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine" is also a fine song. It's in the "Friendly Reunion" mold, with a tad less memorable a melody.
There's no way of getting around the fact, however, that Willie Hill is at his Southern Soul heavenly-best on "Friendly Reunion." If there had been no other Willie Hill music in my experience--and God knows there's been very little--the lure of Willie Hill's perfectly-modulated vocal, simultaneously husky and intimate, would have drawn me to him.
The song takes you to a very special place--a state of emotional contentment much like a child's innocent happiness--only the rich feeling is tempered with the wisdom of the years embedded in the lyrics. What more can one ask for?
Link to Willie Hill on I-Tunes.
Sample "A Friendly Reunion" on the I'M A MAN ON A MISSION CD.
--Daddy B. Nice
About Willie Hill
Willie Hill was born in rural Georgia in the mid-forties and grew up in Albany, Georgia, the son of a gospel-musician father.
While in the Army and stationed in Europe for an eight-year stint in the sixties, Hill gravitated toward entertainment, performing at USO's with American stars touring Europe.
Hill left the military in the 1970's and returned to Georgia, where he teamed up with
singer Anthony Fontaine to create a duo named Willy And Anthony, modeled on "Sam & Dave." They made three albums: "Groovin' on a Sunday Afternoon," "Selfish Lover" and "In a Mellow Mood."
In 1997 Willie Hill recorded his first solo album, Leavin' Won't Be Easy (Ichiban), which featured his signature single, "A Friendly Reunion."
In 2005, in association with Theodis Ealey in Atlanta, Hill released a new single, "I'm A Man On A Mission." It was followed by the Ealey-produced CD of the same title, I'm A Man On A Mission (Ifgam), in late 2007.
The album, which reprised "Friendly Reunion," won a Blues Critic citation for "Best Albums of 2008" and a Jus' Blues Music All Star Award, Male (2008).
Song's Transcendent Moment
"As I looked up
And you were standing there
I forgot all things,
Just didn't seem to care.
You looked like an angel
From the heaven above.
I knew then you were
The only one I ever loved."
Tidbits
1.
July 3, 2011:
"I'm A Man On A Mission" was composed by William Travis, the songwriting alter ego of Southern Soul singer El' Willie.
2.
July 3, 2011:
Here are some of the better videos of Willie Hill available on YouTube.
Listen to Willie Hill singing "I'm A Man On A Mission" Live on YouTube.
Listen to Willie Hill singing "This Love Of Mine" on YouTube.
Listen to Willie Hill singing "You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine" on YouTube.
If You Liked. . . You'll Love
If you liked Certified Slim's "Birthday Suit," you'll love Willie Hill's "Friendly Reunion."
Honorary "B" Side
"I'm A Man On A Mission"
1-5 Star Recommended Tracks
CD: I'm A Man On A Mission
Label: Ifgam
You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine
CD: I'm A Man On A Mission
Label: Ifgam
CD: Leavin' Won't Be Easy
Label: Ichiban
CD: I'm A Man On A Mission
Label: Ifgam
CD: I'm A Man On A Mission
Label: Ifgam
When Will I Stop Loving You
CD: I'm A Man On A Mission
Label: Ifgam
CD: I'm A Man On A Mission
Label: Ifgam