Album Notes

Singer/songwriter, author and speaker, Donna Hill, began her music career as a street performer in Philadelphia's Suburban Station, a center city commuter-railroad hub. She has three albums and writes articles on many topics for the online magazine, American Chronicle. Donna has been honored for her music by the National Park Service, the Submarine Veterans of WWII, the Fellowship of the USS Olympia and others. She has opened for Jez Lowe, Roy Bookbinder, Kate Wolf and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Now living in the rural Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania, Donna, who plays guitar and piano, offers programs for all ages. Legally blind from birth and an eighteen-year cancer survivor, Donna has a message of tenacity, perseverance and hope. Casual and upbeat, Donna and Hunter, her black Lab guide dog, intrigue audiences at house concerts, folk venues and school assemblies. She is featured regularly at the Old Lynn Concert Series in Susquehanna County, which has been presenting national and international singer/songwriters to packed houses since 2000.

Donna, who is working on her first novel and companion CD, donated her song "The Edge of the Line" to the "Sound in Sight" CD project of the volunteer-run nonprofit Performing Arts Division of the National Federation of the Blind (PAD, NFB). Sales of the multi-genre CD support the Mary Anne Parks Performing Arts Scholarship. Donna recently accepted the post of PAD's head of media relations. She works to promote blind entertainers through articles and radio/TV appearances and has met with US Congressman Chris Carney as well as other elected officials and business leaders.

Donna, who has a degree in English Literature from East Stroudsburg University of PA, was a volunteer radio show producer for ten years for the Radio Information Center for the Blind in Philadelphia. She received national press credentials to cover the Carter inauguration – a first for blind representatives of radio reading services, and interviewed performers including Doc Watson and Dave Van Ronk.

She is a member of the Folk Lore Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania. In the First Biennial Convention on Women in Northeastern Pennsylvania held at the University of Scranton in 2007, she presented, “Blind Women in Northeastern Pennsylvania: What we’re up to and what we’re up against.” This speech, which has appeared in several area newspapers, has opened a dialog on issues facing blind people in modern American life. In December, 2008, she was featured on Wilkes-Barre/Scranton CBS affiliate WYOU's Buddy Check, a monthly local news segment encouraging women to do regular breast self exams.

Contact Donna for bookings, interviews and other recordings ("Harvest" & "Rainbow Colors") at:
(570) 833-2708, RR#3 Box 15-C, Meshoppen, PA 18630, dwhill@epix.net