Loneliness and technology came together in an unexpected, unique blend to fulfill the musical dreams of April Kelly, lead singer of the group Marshal Hill. Along with her brother and sister, they are now on a journey they had long given up on. “ My dad was a musician and he traveled a lot,” says April. “He started us off playing guitar, mandolin and the fiddle when we were about seven. When my sister was about five, I was forcing her to learn harmonies and teach her all the songs my dad would teach me. Over the years we all explored our own options musically.”

Sister Mandy is a stay at home mom with three daughters, eighteen months to seven years old. “She’s always loved to sing. She made it into a couple of auditions for American Idol, she had done some performing, but once she had her kids that was her life,” April explains. “Her kids mean everything to her, so she kind of put her dreams aside.

Brother Jason is the father of a little boy, “All Jason has ever really done is play music. He’s a guitar player. He’s played with different bands and traveled around some. He’s been playing since he was sixteen.”

April met her future husband when they were both seventeen and attending college in Knoxville, Tennessee, “I was in broadcasting and journalism, and he was a business major, but it wasn’t really working out for us. We both wanted to go to art school. I told him about Savannah College of Art and Design so we decided to move here. We didn’t realize how expensive the school was so I called them up and told them I played basketball in high school and ended up getting a full basketball scholarship the first year, and got a vocal scholarship for the next two years. I actually sang at Carnegie Hall a couple of times and got to do a lot of traveling with that. I received a BSA in musical theatre and performance. We stayed here in Savannah after graduation.”

April gave birth to a little girl named Ava Loren and things seemed to be going along nicely until one fateful trip changed everything.. April explains, “When Ava was seven months old, we got carjacked at the mall. A guy put a gun to my head and got in the car with her in it. It was a really bad thing.”

“I don’t know if it was posttraumatic stress, but I got really depressed. I lost a lot of weight. I was here in Georgia by myself; I didn’t have any family here to help me with her. I didn’t know what was going on with me.”

The day Ava was born, April’s dad bought her a guitar. Even though she hadn’t touched a guitar in six years, focusing instead on her theatre career, the aftermath of such a traumatic event led her back to the inspiration of her childhood, “I picked up my guitar and wrote a song called, ‘Maybe.’ I found out I had a lot to say. All my songs are about what was going on with me and kind of like creating my own outlet.”

April began sharing her videos with others via the Internet.. “I started doing youtube late at night when my daughter was asleep. I didn’t even tell my family,” she says. “My videos are pretty raw, they are me in my bedroom or my den just singing into that video camera. At that point, having a young baby and being so far away from my family, writing music was what really helped me through all that. I never thought anybody would see it. I guess by letting people hear it and by getting responses, it was like building my own support system, even though they were complete strangers. Because I didn’t think my family would ever hear them, I wasn’t afraid of what I was going to say or write. My songs are really honest; they are just really from me.”

The videos caught the attention of Diana Henderson from EMC Management Company in Nashville, who has done development work with artists such as Tim McGraw, Toby Keith and Shenandoah. “She saw one of the videos that we had all done called, “As Nice As You.” It was my sister, my brother, me and my dad sitting in the front room. She thought our strongest asset would be being a group because we are family.”

April then had to break the news to April and Jason that a whole new world had just opened up, “When I came to Jason and Mandy with the news, they couldn’t believe it. It was like a dream come true that someone was going to take interest in us like that. My channel was all-original. I didn’t have any covers on it, so I didn’t think anybody was listening. So to find out people who were actually in the business had come across it and liked it made us pretty excited.”

The siblings, who chose the name Marshal Hill after a street in East Tennessee they traveled back and forth to school as children, are ready to pursue their new adventure, bringing their sweet harmonies to a new and broader audience. “It’s a fun journey and it just started a couple of months ago,” says April enthusiastically. “We have some really exciting things coming up. The people we are working with all have children, so I bring Ava with me wherever I go and my sister brings her kids. We just make it a family thing. It’s just been a blessing and has really worked out.”