| Sons of Bill | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Charlottesville, Virginia |
| Genres | Rock, Americana, Alt-country |
| Years active | 2006 - Present |
| Labels | Gray Fox Records |
| Website | www.sonsofbill.com |
| Members | |
| Sam Wilson James Wilson Abe Wilson Seth Green Todd Wellons |
|
Sons of Bill is a five-piece rock and Americana band from Charlottesville, Virginia.[1] Named after the father of three of the founding members, Bill Wilson,[2] the band's sound combines traditional country and folk songwriting with instrumentation and presentation of a rock band. Their sound has been compared to classic rockers like Bruce Springsteen or Tom Petty, as well as alt-country bands like the Drive-By Truckers, the Old 97's, and Whiskeytown and more roots oriented 1990's rock bands such as Cracker and the Gin Blossoms.[3]
Contents |
The seeds of Sons of Bill formed in 2005 when James Wilson graduated from Deep Springs College in Nevada and moved back to Virginia. On his way home he visited his older brother Sam Wilson who was living in Brooklyn, NY playing guitar in a rock band and free-lancing as a jazz guitarist. The two brothers spent an evening in Sam's apartment playing old country songs that their dad had taught them, as well as some new songs that James had recently written. Upon returning home that summer James began playing those same songs with his other older brother Abe Wilson at parties and open mic nights around Charlottesville and the idea of forming a band was hatched. Abe was currently home for the summer from architecture school at the University of Maryland. Childhood friend Seth Green was recruited to play bass and Todd Wellons, who had independently played in bands with both Seth and Abe, was brought in to play drums. The band played their first formal show on December 23, 2005 and within several months both brothers had moved home to Virginia to pursue the band full time.
In February 2006 the band placed 1st in a Battle of Bands and won recording time at Crystalphonic Studios in Charlottesville. Armed with nine original songs written by James, in addition to two of Sam's compositions, they entered the studio after only three months and several shows together as a band. The album was independently released in April 2006.
In October 2008 the band traveled to Santa Clarita, CA to record their sophomore album with acclaimed recording engineer and producer Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Sting, Wilco). The sessions produced the album One Town Away which was released in June 2009 on Gray Fox Records. The album features songs written by James and Sam Wilson, as well as keyboardist Abe Wilson and bassist Seth Green. It also features Brian Caputo on drums.[4]
Sons of Bill began pre-production work on their third album in the Spring of 2010. Several months later they received a phone call from David Lowery of 90's alt-rock band Cracker who was interested in producing their next release. The band first met with Lowery in the fall of 2010 to discuss plans for the album and subsequently entered Sound of Music Studios with Lowery and engineer John Morand in December 2010. In March 2011 the band initiated a fan-funded campaign through the innovative website Kickstarter[5] to help offset recording and production costs. The campaign was a tremendous success, hitting it's $20,000 goal in just over 24 hours and eventually doubling that goal in the month it was active.[6] Since then the band has continued working at Sound of Music, in addition to returning to PLYRZ Studios to work with Jim Scott again, and recording at Mission Sound Studios in Brooklyn, NY. The band has performed many of the new songs live and has an early version of the Abe Wilson penned "Santa Ana Winds" via YouTube, as well as acoustic versions of several new songs via MusicFog.com. The release date has not been set but has been rumored to be late 2011 or early 2012.
The band's website also offers several full-length live concert recording for free to recipients of its http://sonsofbill.com/contact/ email list].[7]