Hey everybody,

welcome to www.markusrill.net, hope y'all enjoy your stay.

As we're getting ready to hit the road for the 5-day duo tour between Christmas and New Year's, I finished work on a little thank you for y'all. This has been a great year for me with the release of "Hobo Dream" and all the encouragement I received from music lovers from all over.

So I decided to put together a little "field recordings"-type of CD entitled "The Hobo Companion." The record contains various studio recordings, live tracks, solo demos and live radio sessions. I'm sure everyone will find something to enjoy on this compilation of some cover songs, some new stuff and some new renditions of some of my songs you might know.

Here's the track listing:

1. Waiting Around To Die (Townes van Zandt - studio recording)
2. A Girl Called Jo (Rill - live at the Orange Blossom Special 2004)
3. One More Dollar (Gillian Welch/Dave Rawlings - studio recording)
4. Hobo Dream (Rill - live acoustic at Radio Flora)
5. So I Can Take My Rest (Robert Earl Keen - studio recording)
6. No Penitentiary (Rill - studio recording)
7. If I Needed You/Ft. Worth Blues (Townes van Zandt/Steve Earle - studio recording)
duet with Rachel Harrington
8. Folsom Prison Blues (John R. Cash - live at the Orange Blossom Special 2004)
9. Where Do We Go From Here? (Rill - live at the Hillbilly Guesthouse fall festival 2004)
duet with Rachel Harrington
10. To Kill A Mockingbird (Rill - demo)
11. Run, Run, Run (Rill - live acoustic at Radio Flora)
12. Wild Blue Heart (Rill - demo)
13. Nowhere Begins (Rill - live at the Orange Blossom Special 2004)

The only song previously released on this album is "No Penitentiary" which was recorded for a CD witn regional distribution only called "Momentaufnahmen" (Snapshots). You'll find the story behind this project somewhere in the archives of the news section.

We're selling this album exclusively through the website, at concerts, and through the Blue Rose and Glitterhouse mailorders. Send me an email and you'll receive a hand-signed copy for only 10 Euro.

And here's an extra special offer for a limited time only: Buy any album from the website shop and receive a copy of "The Hobo Companion" for only three Euro extra. But please email me if you want in on that deal so we can process your order correctly.

Alrighty, that's the commercial for now. Come on out and see me on tour with Rachel Harrington on the December duo gigs. We have a ton of really nice songs in store for you. Looking forward to seeing y'all out there.

Merry Christmas y'all, see you soon
Markus

PS: We've already received the first review for "The Hobo Companion". Here's what Thomas Dewers ("Chill at Glitterhouse") has to say:

As the title suggests, "The Hobo Companion" is the ideal companion piece
to "his new album Hobo Dream" (his best so far). Markus Rill from Würzburg
is Germany's top singer-songwriter, presenting the multi-faceted world of
Americana between Texas and Nashville like no other European, performing
at eye level with internationally renowned US acts. This fine
13-song-compilation, conceived by the troubadour with the soulful
sandpaper voice himself, includes various live tracks recorded at 2004's
Orange Blossom Special, the Neusüdende fall festival, and Radio Flora in
Hannover. They are complented by solo demos, studio sessions with his band
The Gunslingers and/or beautiful duets with his partner Rachel Harrington,
a young folk woman pursuing her career in Seattle. The track listing
offers a lot of variety: Original songs (old and new) stand next to
awesome cover versions of songs by Townes van Zandt, Gillian Welch, Robert
Earl Keen, Steve Earle and Johnny Cash. At this level of quality, The Hobo
Companion" is not only a terrific companion piece for his numerous fans
but an album that can win him new followers on its own merits.