VIENNA — Ruth Hill will return to Union Hall at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27. Hill has performed from Antarctica to Alaska, with warmer stops in between.

When Hill was eight years old, her longshoreman father came home from Boston one weekend and asked each of his kids what instrument they’d like to play. Hill immediately answered, “The banjo!” Looking back, she says, “I don’t know where my pull to the banjo came from. Growing up in rural New Hampshire, the only banjo I’d ever heard or seen was on ‘Hee-Haw.'” Hill sang with her family at community events in the small village where she grew up, picked up guitar at age 12, began writing songs as a teenager, and sang her first paying gig as backup for her brothers’ rock ‘n’ roll band from behind the curtain in a smoky bar, before she was old enough to legally be there.

She now resides in Chesterville and is a musical storyteller. Inspired by the gritty joy of growing up in a large, colorful family, and a wandering spirit that’s taken her to both poles of the globe, her songs are packed with powerful imagery, beautiful melodies and have been described as compelling, authentic, and hard-hitting. With an achingly clear voice she delivers her own eclectic mix of folk, Americana, blues and bluegrass.

Over the past two years, She has studied songwriting with Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls), Mary Gauthier, Jonathan Brooke (The Story), Catie Curtis, and Grammy award-winning songwriters Don Henry and Gretchen Peters.

Hill’s second CD, “Reunion of Broken Parts” is almost finished and scheduled for release in October.

Tickets cost $8 in advance or $10 at the door. For more information, call 293-2674 or email viennunionhall@gmail.com.

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