I found out about Markus Rill by chance during a recent trip to Frankfurt/Germany. This proves how hard it is for some good music to reach our country.
This German singer-songwriter is no novice: The Price Of Sin is his sixth album, the third on Blue Rose. He has played with people like Townes van Zandt, Chris Knight, John Wesley Harding, Steve Wynn.
It's becomes immediately obvious that this album is not a local product - it easily surpasses the average quality of European CDs by far. Recorded in Nashville with the help of some outstanding musicians, The Price Of Sin has the depth and bittersweet taste of the work of America's best songwriters.

Markus Rill's writing and most of all his remarkable voice conjure the colors of an Indian Summer in Northern Europe: Autumn shades that give the songs a seriousness and melancholia, more than once reminiscent of Matthew Ryan's work. Rill's haunting singing voice and sober acoustic guitar playing lay the ground work from which the album rises thanks also to performances by Bryan Owings (drums), Dave Jacques (upright bass), and Fats Kaplin (steel, fiddle, slide, banjo, accordion and mandolin).

The track-list hits the target for density and homogeneity: There is no weak track not even when Rill leans on country music as he does in Me & Bonnie Parker and Run Run Run which bring some welcome variety to the mix. You can feel the artist's familiarity with American music in his writing - and in his Southern-sounding drawl.

It is the ballads - atmospherically reminiscent of some of Springsteen's acoustic work - that prove Rill to be an adult songwriter: His characters try the best they can to live with their dreams and disappointments, finding out about their limitations and mistakes made in the process.

You have to mention Broken Puppet, My Love Runs To You and Carry My Load which is rooted in the blues and features some fine dobro. Even when he feels nostalgic and broken hearted for another dream fading away (Fade To Blue), Rill’s performance never grows weak - his words may sound bitter but his soinging is still enchanting. Death also lives inside some of his songs as the album opener and closer - Singin' In The Cemetery and Not Ready Yet - both explore that theme.
And there's also Out Of The Cold with its rising steel guitar, piano and powerful vocals proving once again the strength inside these songs.
Markus Rill is one of the few young people who'll make skeptics change their mind about the quality of European singer songwriters. He deserves to be found.