Andy and Renee provide a much needed connection with live music to their audiences, whether in an intimate House Concert or at a large festival. Their music never fails to move you..your feet, your heart, or, most often, both.

Awards

  • 2013 International Acoustic Music Awards Finalist for "Dream It All Away"
  • 2012 Dallas Songwriters Assoc. 2nd Place, "Kids These Days"
  • 2012 ISC "Unsigned Only" Semifinalist, "Kids These Days"
  • 2012 Song Universe "Best Song" Finalist
  • 2011 Singer Universe "Best Vocalist" Finalist - Renee Safier
  • 2011 First & Third place, Dallas Songwriter's Assn.
  • 2010 International Acoustic Music Awards Finalist for "When You Remember Me"
  • Our CD, "Midnight Tea" was nominated for "Best Traditional Folk" album, 2009 JPF Music Awards! www.jpfolks.com
  • 2009 International Acoustic Music Awards Finalists for "Telescope" and "Stay Another Day"
  • 2009 UK Songwriting Contest Semi-Finalist
  • 2009 Unisong International Songwriting Contest 3rd Place Winner: "Another Man's War & "Kids These Days" -Top 20 winner
  • 2009 Singer Universe "Best Vocalist" Finalist - Renee Safier
  • 2009 JPF "Best Traditional Folk Album: nominee, "Midnight Tea"
  • 2009 Billboard Song Contest Honorable Mention, "Kids These Days"
  • 2008 International Acoustic Music Awards Finalist for "Salvation in Your Arms" and "Way Back Home"
  • 2008 Independent Singer-Songwriter Association, Honorable Mention, "Kids These Days"
  • 2008 Billboard World Music Awards, Honorable Mention, "New Orleans (I'll be Coming Home)" and "Waiting On A Train"
  • 2008 Malibu Music Awards, Honorable Mention, "Kids These Days"
  • 2007 International Acoustic Music Awards 1st Runner-Up, Best Duo/Group for "Away"
  • 2007 Los Angeles Music Awards "Americana Group of the Year"
  • 2007 We Are Listening Singer Songwriter Awards: Honorable Mention
  • 2007 West Coast Songwriters International Song Contest: Honorable Mention
  • 2006 International Acoustic Music Awards Finalists, Best Duo /Group and Best Female Vocal
  • 2005 Renee Safier, Winner, 2005 Telluride Blues Festival, Solo Acoustic Blues Competition www.tellurideblues.com
  • 2005 International Acoustic Music Awards: Best Duo/Group www.inacoustic.com/winners.html
  • 2004 Kweevak.com "Top 40" CDs of the Year: A River is Gone
  • 2001 & 1993 Kerrville New Folk Finalist
  • 1999 Crossroads Music Awards Finalist - Folk
  • 1999 Napa Valley Music Festival Finalist
  • 1999 Sierra Songwriters Festival Finalist
  • 1996 & 1997 Musician Magazine: Best Unsigned Band Semifinalist

Album Reviews

Music is Love CSNY Tribute CD

"I think my personal favorite on this one was a version of a song I’ve always liked called “Thrasher,” from Neil’s Rust Never Sleeps Album. I was surprised to see it on a tribute CD since it has some odd connotations that only the true fans know about, but it was incredibly cool, performed by Andy Hill and Renee Safier with a little rockabilly flair and a 12 string guitar just as on the original." Steve Levine, The Shrewsbury Lantern

 

Many Miles To Go
“I came to you like a parachute/And landed all around your world,” sings Renee Safier on the lovely “Kids These Days,” written by Andy Hill. Produced by Hill & Safier with the great Marty Rifkin, this is an album of tremendous power and passion. Both Andy & Renee are strong songwriters, but with styles vastly different, so marrying their songs brings a great range to their music. Even when he writes one, he sometimes has Renee sing it, as on the wonderful “Kids,” a sad and beautiful reflection of life’s brisk passage. Multi-instrumentalist Rifkin brings the great pedal-steel he’s played with Springsteen to these tracks, as well as beautiful layers of lap steel, slide, dobro and bass. But Andy Hill is no slouch in the instrumental world, playing inspired piano, organ, and acoustic and electric guitars. The album comprises all their originals, except one exceptional exception, Robbie Robertson’s glorious “It Makes No Difference,” which they deliver together with much purity and passion, and fidelity to the Band’s great earthy vocal sound and even Garth Hudson’s big church organ (played by Hill) and celebratory sax (by Nelson Rangell). John Hoke delivers crisp drums on most songs, though Tim Fillman is on “It Makes No Difference.” “The Fallen Man” is a remarkable contemplation of suicide and mortality set to a great Peter Gabriel-like groove layered lovingly by Hill’s heartfelt keyboard work. Long beloved for their great annual tributes to the songs and spirit of Bob Dylan, Andy & Renee remind us that to connect with a genius as intimately as they have with Bob requires a lot of emotional depth, which glows in all these tracks. If you’ve enjoyed their shows over the years but haven’t had the chance to absorb their own songs, here’s your chance. This is a beautiful collection of songs by musicians who knows a lot about what makes songs great. – Paul Zollo bluerailroad.com

Midnight Tea

"Midnight Tea is a unique piece of modern Americana with few equals, nor is it likely any will arise soon."
A review written for the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange by Mark Tucker

Poetix Review

Blackbird Ballads

A Review in Flemish!

A River Is Gone
"…It's an excellently written album as Andy Hill is rapidly becoming a songwriter to watch… Another wonderful effort... Renee has never sounded better vocally. Highly recommended!"
http://thehereandthere.net/music-reviews/entry?id=1
 Michael Sullivan

It Takes A Lot To Laugh

"...Safier's voice oft drips with an aching sensitivity filtered through delicate beauty and a fragility that would break and disappear in less capable hands...Hill's cuts drenched in prairie sod, the workingman's lament, and a salt-of-the-earth sprechestimme..So what about Marty Rifkin? Jesus, but this guy knows the depths of his art and instruments dead cold, nailing colorative and side-lead aspe's highly reminiscent of Red Rhodes. He cuts in witheringly arresting lines, fills, and incidentals. His dobro playing is heavenly and that pedal steel...
A review written for the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange by Mark Tucker

5 out of 5 stars Impressive.
You'll have to go on-line (www.andyandrenee.com) to pick this one up, but if you're admirer of the songwriting skills of Bob Dylan (i.e., if you're alive and not deaf), then this tribute from the SoCal folkies Andy Hill and Renee Safier is worth the effort. Drawing on a wide chronological range of the Dylan songbook, Hill and Safier, accompanied by Marty Rifkin on bass, guitar and various slide variations, offer 14 straightforward interpretations. Their selection of material is impeccable and impressive, frequently departing from the obvious in order to include the excellent. Their ten years as a performing duo, and five previous albums largely devoted to Hill's songwriting, contribute to a fine intuitive sense of arrangement, with their voices weaving and blending in just the right ways in all the right spots. The duo has been throwing Bob Dylan birthday parties for as long as they've been singing together, inviting all comers to arrive in costume and join in the music. They may have trouble getting the sing-a-long going next year, because any guest who has heard this disc is likely to want to just sit back and hear more excellent interpretations from this talented pair. Reviewer: Shaun Dale
http://www.cosmik.com/aa-may01/reviews/review_andy_hill.html

"…Tributes like this can often sound forced or strained, like the artists are reaching for something they can't attain. Hill and Safier are extremely comfortable with these songs, and so the pieces roll off like old friends. Which, of course, they are."
http://www.cent.com/abetting/archH.html#ANDYHILL


5 out of 5 stars Best Dylan tribute album I've heard in a long time.
I was really happy to find this CD. [After purchasing a few others that were disappointing from other artists.] Each year around the anniversary of Dylan's birthday I take my Dylan CDs including Dylan cover songs to a local public radio station and play them. It's an early program [6 to 8AM] but I enjoy doing it. This is one CD I hope to play at least 3 songs from this year.  Reviewer: Steve Sevek [producer of CD: Thinking About Bob Dylan][May 20, 2006 - WJFF in Jeffersonville, NY]

Commentary on Andy & Renee's version of "Emotionally Yours":  http://www.informzoo.com/main/cat/21/393
5 out of 5 stars They got it right! ... A must have CD
Rarely have I heard two quality musicians with such beautiful voices. Of all the Bob Dylan Tributes, this one ranks on top. It's relatively easy to play Bob, but to play Bob WELL, that's another story! They got it right, It's a must have CD. Don' t hesitate, you'll listen to it, over and over. Reviewer: Claude Julien

5 out of 5 stars A Must Have!
Ever notice some major acts will once in a while put out an album of favorite songs of other folks. Cover tunes they are called and its a quick and cheap way to throw some product out there while the artist records some new songs. Some are fun (Huey Lewis) and some are a terrible mistake (i.e. Shawn Colvin's Cover Girl). But once in a great while you strike gold and get an album that actually improves on the original and this effort by L.A. based duo Andy and Renee is solid gold. They have been big Bob Dylan fans and decided to put out a CD with some of Bob's classic tunes and its a beauty. For one thing, you can hear (finally) what the hell Dylan has been mumbling about and second of all, Renee Safier brings out the very essence of what is being said. The music is spare but it only helps showcase the very talented Hill/Safier harmonies. This album has 14 Dylan songs, including "Simple Twist of Fate","A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall". This is a must have..... Reviewer: Michael Sullivan

Fourteenth Of February
"…absolutely stunning vocal work."
http://www.musicaldiscoveries.com

Something Unbroken
"…twelve vocally rich tracks of varying styles… stunning album… warm, powerful and sensitive"
http://www.musicaldiscoveries.com/digest/digest.php?v=1&is=1

They All Laughed
"…Safier has a vocal gift from heaven, with her sensual smooth (yet delightfully rough at times) tone and artistic line direction in her performances… her own sultry.. sexy.. voice - the type of voice that could not only melt a heart, but perhaps the entire polar ice cap… the ample instrumental talents of Bob Malone, who's comping and touch on the pearlies is a compliment to Renee's interpretations…"
Reviewer: Earbuzz.com