The Bills

The Bills are a high-impact, acoustic folk music quintet from the West Coast of Canada. Formed in 1996 (as The Bill Hilly Band), they have performed extensively throughout North America and Europe, with their strongest followings in Western Canada, the Western US, Ontario and the UK. The Bills began as The Bill Hilly Band in 1996, when Canadian jazz and rock musicians Marc Atkinson (guitar) and Scott White (upright and electric bass) took up new acoustic instruments (mandolin and fiddle, respectively) and began exploring folk tunes from around the world. A vocalist and guitarist raised on fiddle music, Chris Frye was a jazz guitar student of Marc's. Chris and Marc quickly formed musical bonds, sharing a taste for a broad variety of musical styles. Chris' powerful singing and deep knowledge of North American traditional tunes lent themselves to the music that Marc and Scott were creating, and they quickly welcomed him into their new band and released their first self-titled album. Shortening their name to The Bills, the band released their album Let Em Run in 2005, which was picked up by Grammy-winning US label Red House Records. The album earned them their second Juno Award nomination, and the video for Let Em Run was aired across Canada on CMT. Seasoned Winnipeg jazz and world music talent Richard Moody (violin, viola) joined the band not long after. The Bills are an extraordinary quintet renowned for their instrumental virtuosity, lush vocal arrangements, exuberant live performances, evocative songwriting and refreshingly innovative interpretations of traditional tunes from around the globe. Hailed by The Glasgow Herald as the biggest blast of fresh air to come out of Canada since The Band.

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