James Hilton, 57 was born in Birmingham Alabama. His father, Lecil Hilton, was a coal miner & mandolin/guitar player and as Jimmy says, “My whole family played music!”. Lecil followed the coal money from Alabama to Tennessee to Kentucky, finally ending up outside of Pittsburgh when Jim was about eleven. By then Jimmy was already bangin’ on his dad’s guitar. James credits his earliest musical influence as The Ventures. Later in the sixties he discovered Eric Clapton who led him to studying all the great blues guitar masters especially Freddie King and T-Bone Walker. While in high school his band The Morbids would hire themselves out to backup national acts touring though the area teen clubs. Martha & The Vandellas and The Five Stairsteps were among these acts. In 1969 James shipped out to the Navy and Vietnam. When he got out, “I went right back to playing the blues”. Over the next 20 years James continued to play locally in the Pittsburgh area. In 1991 He Formed the James Hilton Band with vocalist Rick Lander and bassist Jeffrey Ingersoll. Later Jimmy Britton came on board to play keyboards and the band recorded the very first release of Bonedog Records. The James Hilton Band, Is It Rock?. For his new release, Out There!, James draws from the unique experience of Pittsburgh’s musical scene in the sixties. While most of the country was tuned into The Beatles and Herman’s Hermits, Pittsburgh had wacked out DJ’s, Mad Mike, Charlie Apple & the now famous Porky Chedwick, blowing crazy, off the wall Rock and R&B across the airwaves. Hopefully this release will capture that moment in time and space. . . OUT THERE!