The Hills of Malibu are led by Gary Dayton Hill  - outlaw, mountain man, singer, songwriter and guitar player.  Gary Dayton is a Renaissance man who has lived a wild and interesting life and tells about it in both song and story with insight, understanding and humor. Gary Dayton made his professional stage debut at age ten performing with his singing songwriting parents The Singing Hills.  After serving in the United States Army, Gary made records forCapitol Records  and toured with Waylon Jennings and The Outlaws. Gary Dayton is a songwriters' songwriter, his guitar playing is as unique as his songwriting and his voice is strong and tempered like a comfortable pair of old boots. He and his wife, The Sage, are The Hills of Malibu and their new record featuring Pedro Arevalo will be released this Summer, 2015. Don't miss a chance to see them live. You will go home feeling like you spent an evening with good friends.

A Brief History as told by Gary Dayton Hill

“Here I am back in the bars," is the opening line to a song I’ve been writing off and on for a while now. It just doesn’t mean now what it did back when I first penned it. Back then, bars were where you went to hear the kind of music that I played and starting out in small rooms was standard. Heavy drinking, cigarette smoke from the floor to the ceiling and loud and fun. Today the rooms are much bigger and more appealing. The drinking is nowhere near as heavy, onstage or offstage and smoking is outlawed. It’s still loud at times and it’s definitely still fun. But, "bars" is easier to rhyme than joint or club. Kinda like when Merle said there are two kinds of joints. It is sad to say that here in Los Angeles, the music capital of the world, there are fewer and fewer places to hear live music. So, "Here I am back in the bars," pretty much sums up my feeling for the Country/Americana/Country Rock/Country Blues/Folk Rock etc. music scene. ‘Been around a while, up and down, in and out, sometimes even knowing what the hell is going on. But mostly just writing and singing my life and others lives as I see ‘em. And there is the essence of a writer: “as I see ‘em”.

Sometimes right and sometimes wrong but hopefully truthful to one’s own ideals more often than not. Coming up the way I did, I never had much choice. My Dad and Mom were Country musicians and songwriters for most of their lives. My Dad wrote most of each song but Mom would help him finish them. The old man had many of his songs covered by famous singers like Merle Travis, Carl Smith, Red Foley, Dinah Shore, Gene Autry, Ferlin Husky as well as soul artists Little Esther Phillips and Big Al Downing plus others I can’t recall, and bands from the 40’s thru the present. My brother, sisters and I were the first generation born out of the mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee and both Virginias. Most everyone before us were miners, millers, farmers and preachers with some musicians and horse-thieves thrown in for balance. Country music was the only sound from the radio, records, mouths and parties at the house until the magic of Rock and Roll gave us vent for our own feelings. I started playing guitar and singing as a small child but once I started writing my own tunes, as a young man, the music took on new meaning. The family life I had grown up with was deeply instilled.

My folks moved the family from Dayton, Ohio where they were working steadily on T.V., radio and live gigs, to Los Angeles, invited out by the band The Whippoorwills who were later featured by Roy Rogers as the alternate to The Sons of The Pioneers.  The move was made so that my Dad could take a shot at being a singing cowboy or at least further his career in music. Soon after arriving in L.A. the old man signed with Gene Autry’s Golden West Melodies and that’s another story.

The three oldest of us kids were either already involved in music or were being groomed for it. My older sister, April, was a star at the ripe old age of six, singing any part harmonies and playing washtub bass alongside my Mom and Dad in their country revue. She continued on after our folks stopped performing live and represented our high school district as a jazz/pop singer of acclaim. I started young. Back in Dayton I had won a talent contest when I was not much more than a toddler singing a song made famous by Eddy Arnold and I was hooked. I was on the Art Linkletter show when I was about eight years old and the only thing I remember about it, was when he asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was missing my upper front teeth and Art and the audience were delighted when I answered “muthithian”. I did a high harmony duo with my brother before I was in my teens. We performed at schools, parties, store openings and on Los Angeles’ local country television shows. There were numerous country music shows on T.V. back then, most notably Cal Worthington’s Town Hall Party and Cal’s Corral, and The godfather of L.A.’s country scene Cliffie Stone’s Home Town Jamboree. My brother, Randy and I performed on most of them at one time or another. Some other vaguely familiar names who were on those shows: Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee, Joe and Rose Lee Maphis, Johnny Bond, Tex Williams, Tex Ritter, Marty Robbins, George Jones, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Maddox Bros. and Rose, Collins Kids, Tennessee Ernie Ford, James Burton with Bobby Luman and many many more.

After puberty changed my voice from an alto to a deep baritone the high harmonies were out, so I continued on alone as a singer-songwriter. At first in a folk trio, then I began fronting a blues/rock band writing and singing some of my own tunes. Then the Beatles hit and everything changed and my first wife turned me on to Bob Dylan and things changed forever.

Soon thereafter, the military draft called my name and off I went to Germany where I put a band together. I learned lots of new chords on my guitar playing light jazz at the dinner hour at the officers clubs and other military functions. We played around the local and not so local area talking our way on to the stage with the regular acts playing rock and country music. We played in front of some fairly hostile audiences, sometimes behind wire screens, but we won some of them over. They just didn’t like American military people back then. Different war.

When I came home to a wildly divided country, I jumped right back into the music scene. One of my first bands was filled with future stars who went on to name acts. We had a chick drummer who became the drummer with Fanny, one of the first all girl rock bands and were produced by famed producer Richard Perry.  The bass player moved along to play with The Sons of Champlin, one of San Francisco’s seminal bands. The lead guitarist first joined Frank Zappa’s alternate band and then later became the lead guitarist in Crazy Horse when they first went on their own from Neil Young. I was writing and singing most of the songs and we were being courted by Perry, but even with all the talent or maybe because of it, we couldn’t keep it together and we broke up. That’s when I decided to strike off on my own, do my own songs and get my solo act together. My first marriage, which produced my beautiful daughter Cyndi, was over from lack of maturity, so I bought a new VW bus and took off traveling around the country, playing wherever I could. I ended up in Portland, Oregon where I met my future second wife and the songs started pouring out of me. We were living in Eugene, Oregon when Crazy Horse came a-touring. My old friend Greg Leroy was playing guitar with them and we spent the night at my place talking and singing. Greg told me he hadn’t forgotten me and my songs and that he wondered if I would be interested in coming back to L.A. to do a record of my songs with Crazy Horse producing for the Warner Bros. Records label. I said, “Hell no…when should I be there?!" So, a couple months went by and Greg called and my then girlfriend and later my wife, Colleen and I packed up and moved to L.A.

After several weeks of rehearsals I learned I was actually being considered for the front man job with Crazy Horse which I had no interest in. Greg, Colleen and I talked it over and decided I would go on as a singer/songwriter with any help they could supply. I met musicians through Greg and other old friends and set out to get my own record deal.

Within two or three months of playing bars, nightclubs, parties and small concerts we were offered a deal with a guy who found Sonny and Cher and Buffalo Springfield. We cut demos at The Record Plant, one of the most famous studios in town at the time. During my first real recording session I go into the bathroom and who is there? Stevie Wonder. Man I was thrilled, but the deal with the record guy was so heavily loaded in his favor I hired an attorney and broke the ties. But I had the tapes and used them to continue my quest.

Next I met Bob Cuvallo a big time manager who got me in the door at Capitol Records to meet Bob Buziak and Al Coury in A&R. We cut more demos in the legendary basement studios at Capitol, where I first met one of my very favorite artists of all time, Leon Russell.  Those demos eventually got me signed to the label.

One day while listening to the radio the DJ said he was going to play a song by someone who was worth a dozen Bob Dylans. Such an outrageous statement certainly got my attention and I listened while he played a song from Willie Nelson’s album Phases and Stages. I was floored and went out and bought the record immediately. While I didn’t think it was worth a dozen Bob Dylans it was certainly one of the best records I had ever heard. I told my manager to find out when Willie was going to be in L.A. and to please find a way to introduce us. That’s how I was introduced to the style of country music that I felt closest to. Not long after meeting Willie I also had the privilege to meet Waylon when they were in town for a show. Those two guys were breaking country out of the doldrums and opening it up to a much bigger audience. They both treated me with respect and friendship, something that until then I had found in short supply in the music business. Willie offered me the chance to move to Austin and be the first signee on his new label Lone Star Records. And Waylon introduced me to the man who was producing Jessie Colter’s albums for Capitol where I had a standing offer for a deal. What a conflict. I stayed in L.A. where I was the main country dude and recorded two albums and toured with Waylon. I’ve wondered what might have happened if I had followed Willie back to Austin but I didn’t and so…… Next I got my first date in Vegas at the Golden Nugget from Steve Wynn. Opening night the curtain went up and there were four people in the seats, Merle Haggard and three drunken tourists hanging on him. Merle clapped and cheered me and my band on and even declared he wanted to record one of my songs. I could hardly believe my ears. Here was the other major influence of my musical life enthusiastically applauding me and I hadn’t even met him yet. After the show I went out to the seats and stuck out my hand and was humbled by Merle’s presence and lack of pretense. We ran the streets and clubs all night and had a great introduction to Vegas. In all the years since he always treated me in the same way.

My manager at the time got me opening act slots in real concert settings with Quick Silver Messenger Service, Kathy McDonald and Dave Mason which gave me the confidence to believe I was ready for the big time. The next 8-10 years were wild and woolly as country music broke out of Nashville with the likes of Willie, Waylon, Johnny Cash, Kristofferson, Haggard, Tompall, Jessie Colter, Kinky, Emmylou and Gram Parsons to name a few. I consider it a blessing to have met, hung out with or performed with all these folks.

I was the first long haired country act to play the World Famous Palomino Club. Ricky Nelson and Linda Rondstat had performed there before me but they were rock acts first. When Tommy Thomas, the owner of the club, finally agreed to give me a night, it was a breakthrough. Tommy became a mentor to me and I played there more times than I can remember. Tommy was the best club owner I’ve ever met. He saw the future and wasn’t afraid to exploit it. I opened for Linda Rondstat, Freddie Hart, Delaney Bramlett, Dorsey Burnett, Doug Sahm with Greg Allman and Elvin Bishop, Eddie Dean and many others. The biggest names in country music and rock played or just hung out at the “Pal” all the time and it was great.

I also was fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time to have the pleasure of playing at the best gig I’ve ever had to date, the Sundance Saloon. It was located in rural Calabasas, California, a suburb of L.A. A honky tonk of the first degree. There were more famous musicians and actors per square inch in that place every night than you could even imagine. I was there every other Friday and Saturday night for almost five years when I wasn’t on the road. What an unbelievable party. I was also on call at The Troubador, another L.A. club of world stature, when they needed a reliable act to open for name artists who were crossing over and were passing through town. It was there I first met Roger Miller who was sitting in with Johnny Rodriguez with me as the opening act. After that I ran into Roger many times at the Palomino.

I decided to move to Nashville to try my luck there even though my friends Willie and Waylon were telling me that the scene there was not good for people like us that were doing different kinds of country music than was the norm. At the time Willie and Waylon and the like were called progressive and the labels were calling me ultra progressive. I wrote about subjects and used words and instrumentation that weren’t all that common to say the least.

On the way to Tennessee I stopped to visit friends in a little town way up in the mountains of Colorado called Steamboat Springs. As I was driving into town I found a local FM radio station and they were playing one of my songs at that very moment. Turned out they were fans of my stuff. Our planned short stay grew longer and my business manager and I bought a local nightclub and proceeded to spend just about all of our savings bringing music to the town. We had J.J. Cale, Pure Prarie League, Willis Alan Ramsey and others come in for shows before we realized the town couldn’t support our ideas. I went back out on the road for relief and much needed cash playing rodeos with famed rodeo rider Larry Mahan. He and I had met in L.A. when he was considering making a run at being a country singer and wanted my help. We tried, but Larry was a great rodeo rider. On that tour, I was honored by the request from Jerry Lee Lewis to sit in with us somewhere in Texas because he liked my stuff. It blew me out. Jerry Lee Lewis. He was fantastic.

It was also about that time that I got a call from the manager of the Flying Burrito Brothers in L.A. They were looking for someone to replace the late Gram Parsons as the front man of the band. They brought me back to Topanga Canyon to see if we felt good together. We didn’t. They wanted new blood that would blend in. Too many cooks and no chef. They knew me and most of them liked me, but I had been a front man doing my own thing for a while and I have never blended in so with no hard feelings I went back to Colorado, did a solo gig at night, helped build a three story log cabin during the day and waited for the next door to open.

About that time my new manager called to tell me he had a deal for me with Jim Halsey’s label Cyclone Records and we were headed back to L.A. I recorded an album for them but it was never released. The label went under in one of the many purges that have occurred in Nashville’s repeated wrong turns to grow their audience. I stayed in L.A. playing clubs and concerts and the occasional tour to Vegas or somewhere. Next came an offer from Atlantic but again they did not know how to “market” me. Too rock for country and too country for rock seems to have been coined for me. Another term used back in those days was “Americana” which may have been first used by my manager Michael Schivo while trying to describe my stuff back in the seventies.

I recorded another album with some of the best musicians in the business and it turned out great, but my personal life was falling apart and I was floundering. I continued to hear the same thing,"Great stuff but what do we do with it?" I kept that one in the can took a break to think things over. I finally decided to stop fooling around with the major labels and figure out how to do it by myself.

So, after a very painful but necessary breakup of my second marriage which gave me my other two beautiful children, Caitlin and Justin, I took some time to recover and then started to make my moves. I went back in the studio, recorded 12 new songs with great players like Albert Lee, Howard Yearwood, David Jackson, Dillon O’Brian, James Cruce, Marty Rifkin, Teresa James, Debra Dobkin, Billy Watts, Jerry Peterson and Doug Livingston among others. The title is “Long Time Coming” and if I do say so myself it is a very good recording.  I and my new girlfriend, Carolin, formed our record company. We call it Core Level Records. The new record is the first of many we intend to release on this label. We have contracted with four other local artists to produce their records. Our parent company is Mountain Man Music, the name of my publishing company for the last 30 years. Carolin has been patient with me and shown me that even an old dog can learn new tricks. She even laughed at my fears and kissed away my tears and graced my life with her hand in marriage. Now onward and upward.

I’ve done T.V. and small parts in small movies. I got two of my songs in a movie with William Katt. I’ve heard my songs on the radio while I was driving down the road and done live broadcasts and interviews. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have worked in the studio and on stage with some of the best and most respected names in music. A short list: Howard Yearwood, Albert Lee, Emmylou Harris, Mark Andes, John Hobbs, Barney and Carter Robertson, Billy Graham, Ricky Skaggs, Paul Uhrig, Jack Bruno, George Hawkins, Guthrie Trapp, Bob Britt, Cary Park, George Marinelli, Chuck Fiore, Rick Shlosser, Adie Grey, Mike Finnigan, Curtis Stone, Billy Darnell, David Pearlman, Tony Gilkyson, Eddie Baytos and many, many more.

This brings us to the here and now. I’m still doing what I love to do, with musicians that I love and respect, performing in front of live audiences sharing the fun and excitement and experiencing the second best feeling in the world. We’re having a great time, hope you’ll join us.

Dayton