Of all the great guitarists Hamilton has produced over the years, Bill Dillon has gone the furthest.

You not know the name, but there's a good chance you know the sound of Dillon's guitar. As a session guitarist, Dillon reached the highest echelons of the music business. His trademark atmospherics graced the records of Joni Mitchell, Peter Gabriel, Gordon Lightfoot, 10,000 Maniacs, Daniel Lanois, the Neville Brothers, the McGarrigles, Edie Brickell and Counting Crows.

For 15 years, he was the right hand of Robbie Robertson, the former guitarist/songwriter for The Band. Dillon was an integral part of Robertson's first three solo albums. They toured the world together and appeared on most of the late night TV shows, including Letterman (twice), Conan O'Brien and Saturday Night Live.

In the '90s, Dillon was a full-fledged member of Ian Thomas's band The Boomers, and then went on to handle guitar duties on all of Sarah McLachlan's studio albums.

He has worked in studios and concert venues throughout Europe and North America, living for a time in New Orleans, Vancouver and Los Angeles, hobnobbing with the A-list of the rock world. At one time he owned a 50-foot schooner that he kept docked in San Diego (where, unfortunately, it sank).

Dillon met Joni Mitchell over lunch in the L.A. restaurant Spangles. She ordered macaroni and cheese, with wieners. Dillon ordered espresso, just espresso. He then agreed to play guitar on two of her albums. Dillon even smoked hash with ex-Beatle George Harrison off a pin in a hotel room in San Remo, Italy.

In 1988, he performed at Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday tribute at Wembley Stadium, playing guitar for Lanois, Tracy Chapman and the Neville Brothers.

Despite all his worldly experiences, Dillon has always considered Hamilton his home turf. On Sunday, some old Hamilton friends - including Ian Thomas, Dave Rave, Jamie Oakes, Darcy Hepner, Liam Titcomb, Sue Leonard and Steve Strongman - are getting together to pay tribute to Dillon's work with a special concert at This Ain't Hollywood. Dillon will be on stage the whole time - in his oh-so-perfect Beatle boots and John Lennon wire-rimmed glasses - as the guests take turns performing with him.

Dillon, 63, was born in Toronto but moved as an adolescent with his family to Grimsby. He left school in Grade 9 after a dispute with the school principal over the length of his hair. It was then that his career in music began. A self-taught guitarist, he got himself a job at age 15 working Hamilton bars with a country-rock band called The Impalas.

"They worked six nights a week plus matinees on Saturday at places like the Jamesway on the Mountain," says Dillon as part of a wide-ranging interview at The Spectator. "It was packed, wall to wall people. At first I played bass, then they saw me play guitar and I became a guitar player. I learned how to swear and smoke cigarettes that summer." A string of bands followed, playing high schools and bars - Duffy's, the Elmer, and the Running Pump. On the circuit he met Daniel Lanois, a guitarist and record producer. By the mid-'70s he was getting regular work at Lanois' new Grant Avenue Studio, recording with locals and playing on advertising jingles for local pizza places, clothing stores and car dealerships.

By the mid-'80s Lanois had found international fame producing U2 and Peter Gabriel. He asked Dillon to come to Los Angeles to help record Robbie Robertson's first solo album. The answer was a clear "yes." Dillon had been a huge fan of Robertson and The Band since he was a kid.

With the help of Lanois, Dillon had developed a unique style of playing, turning sustained feedback into melody and using it to orchestrate an entire song. It became the signature sound of that first solo record by Robertson. It won the Juno for album of the year in 1987.

"All that orchestration, all the melodies, that's me," says Dillon, who now splits his time between a house in Woodstock, Ont., and an apartment in Hamilton.

Through those Robertson sessions, Dillon made numerous friendships with top-flight session players like drummer Jerry Marotta and bassist Tony Levin.

One day, Levin couldn't make a session and a replacement bassist named Larry Klein was called in. Dillon didn't know it, but Klein was then married to the great singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, another one of his earliest idols. One thing led to another and Dillon found himself watching Joni eat macaroni and cheese ... with wieners.

"Joni missed her K-D," Dillon laughs, adding carefully: "She is without a doubt, the most eloquent person I have ever encountered. She can't say a sentence without it being absolutely perfect."