Justin Hiltner
banjoist | songwriter | journalist | activist
“a leader in the burgeoning movement to welcome and highlight queer voices in bluegrass.”
- NPR Music
“…Building a bridge between the genre’s buttoned-up past and a looser, unscripted future.”
- Rolling Stone Country
“…The way [hiltner picks] suggests the way hearts palpitate and skin tingles.”
- SF Chronicle
IBMA Award nominee Justin Hiltner is a banjo player and songwriter based in Nashville, TN. His high-energy, Scruggs-style picking is unique in its combination of traditional aesthetic and progressive, outside-the-box thinking. Having a dynamic, variable voice on the banjo has given him opportunities across genres, not simply in straight-ahead bluegrass or “newgrass” alone, but also in folk, country, singer/songwriter, and Celtic. His original songs don’t fall neatly into any of these genre labels, but are instead focused on their stories - which are intensely personal, while maintaining relatability and accessibility. His debut solo album finished and awaiting release in fall 2021, it’s a collection of stripped down, unencumbered originals - just a songwriter, his banjo, and his songs.
Over the course of his eleven years in Music City he’s toured, performed, and collaborated with bluegrass greats such as Bluegrass Hall of Famer Roland White, Laurie Lewis, Jim Lauderdale, Ronnie McCoury, Molly Tuttle, and Missy Raines. In 2016 he was nominated for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Instrumentalist Momentum Award. As a songwriter he has been featured in the IBMA Official Songwriter Showcase and he received an Honorable Mention in American Songwriter magazine’s Lyric Contest. In 2019 he was nominated for IBMA’s Collaborative Recording of the Year Award for his performance on Roland White’s “Soldier’s Joy/Ragtime Annie” from White’s album, Tribute to the Kentucky Colonels.
An activist and proponent of inclusion and visibility in roots music, he produced the first ever showcase of diversity in bluegrass, now an annual event at IBMA’s business conference, and he authors the eponymous “Shout & Shine” interview series, which focuses on underrepresented and marginalized identities in roots music, for The Bluegrass Situation.
Hiltner is a co-founder of Bluegrass Pride, a non-profit 501(c)(3) with a mission of uplifting LGBTQ+ folks in bluegrass and roots music and currently serves on BGP’s board of directors. He also serves on Folk Alliance International’s Cultural Equity Council.
His debut full-length album, Watch It Burn, made with friend, co-writer, and bluegrass renaissance man Jon Weisberger, was released on Robust Records in August 2018. The record features 11 songs written by Hiltner and Weisberger and an all-star cast: Molly Tuttle, Tim O'Brien, Kimber Ludiker, Tristan Scroggins, Casey Campbell, Brandon Godman, Corrina Logston, Amanda Fields, Vickie Vaughn, and Ellie Hakanson.
Hiltner just completed a year-long national tour with Broadway’s Tony Award-winning 2019 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! He can be seen performing Bright Star – a musical written by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell – at the Actor’s Playhouse at Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables, FL from March 29 to April 16, 2023. Tickets and more information here.
‘1992,’ Hiltner’s highly anticipated solo, full-length debut, is available now. It was selected as a Best of 2022 album by NPR Music, Slate, and more.
Available everywhere now.
Stream here.
Purchase here.
Available everywhere you stream music.
Stream here.
Order physical copies here.
Available everywhere you stream music.
Stream here.
Purchase here.
Available everywhere.
Order physical copies here.
Purchase/listen digitally here.
SHOWS
WRITING
For ‘Dolly Parton’s America’ Host, it all starts with “Muleskinner Blues”
In public radio and podcast fandom Jad Abumrad’s voice is not only immediately recognizable, it’s iconic. As a host of WNYC’s hit show, Radiolab, Abumrad has explored myriad topics ranging from secret World War II missions to the social and cultural impacts of contagious diseases. He has a knack for storytelling, uncovering and contextualizing minute details that many other writers and journalists may have simply shrugged at or glossed over… [READ MORE]
Letting go of time: my soundtrack for a year with cancer
Many of the facets of the music industry are the way they are simply because they are the way they are, but there is one pillar of melodic and lyrical art-making that remains extraordinarily arbitrary.
Time.
Records are released on Fridays now. Except when they aren’t. Some release days are packed with albums and others are desolate. Festival season coincides with the weather-outside-is-bearable season — except when it doesn’t. Holiday records are recorded in the summer. Lead time is inflexible, though ever-changing. Deadlines are always drop-dead… until they aren’t… [READ MORE]
Kacey Musgraves is Country’s queer icon, but these roots artists are actually queer
Kacey Musgraves’ dominance during Sunday’s 61st Annual Grammy Awards has certainly solidified her place as country music’s newest queer icon. She offered simply stunning, near-perfect performances during the primetime broadcast and took home four trophies: Best Country Solo Performance, Best Country Song, Best Country Album, and one of the most prestigious awards of the night, Album of the Year. So-called “Gay Twitter” devolved into a tizzy as the show unfolded through the afternoon and evening with Musgraves decidedly at the top… [READ MORE]
Contact
Booking & General Inquiries:
info@justinhiltner.com
Book Justin Hiltner for your event! From solo banjo shows to a full, five-piece bluegrass band, there’s a wide range of performance options available. From festivals, parties, weddings, and music camps to conferences, seminars, panels, and more. From farmers’ markets to faerie gatherings from sweet corn festivals to pride parades, what any event needs is sad, gay banjo songs.
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