Bill Payne
They told me I needed a bio for my site. This would be more like an autobio, and I feel a little strange writing it because I prefer to blend humility and confidence into my persona. But, for those who are interested, I'll do my best to let you into the parts of my life that brought me to my current place as a performing songwriter.
THE HISTORY
I was born in 1948 in Washington, D.C. and spent my pre-pubescent years growing up in Northern Virginia, the Tidewater area of Virginia, and Omaha, Nebraska, where I became seriously interested in music. I took clarinet lessons and played in the school band, all the while listening for the sounds of a clarinet in the songs I heard on the radio. Clarinets were a rarity in the country and rockabilly tunes I liked.
When I was 14, my family moved to the Chattanooga, Tennessee area, where I went to a private, male-only military school. Somehow, my dad ended up with a baritone ukelele that I understand was given to him by the great Arthur Godfrey. It looked a lot like a guitar, only with 4 strings, and I had heard a lot of guitars in songs on the radio. I purloined the uke and began learning to play, along with some friends who had guitars. They took a vote and decided that, if I wanted to be in their "band", I had to get a guitar instead of the uke.
So, unbeknownst to my parents, I traded my old clarinet in on a home-made electric guitar, which worked fine considering it was a real clunker. Black, it was. And ugly. But, I was motivated, and, practicing 4 hours a day, my skills improved enough to become part of a band, The Fabulous Furies. We were fabulous, alright! We did practice a lot, though, and we got gigs, too, and acquired some right talented musicians and singers. We were fortunate to open for the Beach Boys in the mid-'60s, and might have had a musical future if the members of the band hadn't all gone to different colleges.
I worked in a music store and began giving guitar lessons as well as playing an Epiphone acoustic guitar and singing at coffee houses and local festivals. Solo gigs. In Knoxville, where I went to U.T., I met The Loved Ones, a local band that was truly fabulous, and, through their influence, pursued music with vigor until the late-'60s. As a married father, I quit playing music in order to chase the buck and be responsible, 2 things I wasn't very good at.
I continued writing songs, however, and, over the next 30 years, the dream of the big stage and the hit songs hibernated just beneath my mainstream world. In 1998, while developing an intense interest in performance poetry, I had three surgical operations in a period of three months. During my recovery, I self-published 2 books of poetry and began using my guitar to write more songs. The open mic stage beckoned, and I soon began performing my stuff in public again. But, being a musician is a "use-it-or-lose-it" thing, and 30 years is plenty of time to lose it.
It's been 8 years since I started playing and singing again, and sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be as good as I was way back when. Motivation and persistence have paid off, however, and the result is more and better songs as well as sufficient skills to get out and perform again. I still work my business to keep food on the table, but I have other goals, among them to become a full-time performing songwriter.
I wanted that to happen by the end of 2006, but I realize that may have been a little ambitious for a guy feeling his way through the business. So, I've given myself another year to adjust my pace, at which time I'll take another look.
MY INFLUENCES
Early on, I listened to Elvis and a number of rhythm and blues artists, like Dee Clark, Bo Diddley, Little Stevie Wonder, and Sam Cooke, as well as a few of the country stars of the era. I also liked the early rockers and was compared to Bobby Vee and Ricky Nelson some when I first started playing out solo.
I was listening a lot to Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond and Harry Chapin - some of the greatest songwriters ever, as far as I'm concerned - when the Beatles came along with the rest of the British Invasion. The music was great - captivating and endearing as well as energizing. The songs I wrote back then were stylistically an amalgamation of British and rhythm & blues.
Later on, I became fascinated with the ladies of music - Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt, Emmy Lou Harris, Joni Mitchell and others. The songwriters always got my attention - I was always reading the liner notes in albums to see who wrote what. The songs motivated me to write more songs.
The mid-'70s brought so much good music: effects-based rock, like Gino Vannelli; great rhythm and blues by Earth, Wind and Fire, Chi-Lites, Johnny Guitar Watson and others; and that kickin' country blues by The Amazing Rhythm Aces and Flying Burrito Brothers. I kept writing, hearing the music in my head but not playing it. Some of those songs still revisit me with their great harmonies. Alas, most will never see the stage lights unless I find myself with a very patient, and versatile, band.
Although I enjoyed country and some of the rock of the '80s, I concentrated on chasing material riches instead of following my dream. I listened to Tom Waits and a lot of the old songwriters like Gordon Lightfoot and Eric Clapton.
I'd be slacking if I didn't talk a little about a place in the Roanoke Valley of Virginia - Wit's End/Belly Of The Beast. This was the greatest place ever for live music in this area, and poetry, too. Owned by another great songwriter, Clayton Ellers (R.I.P.), this dual club brought in fantastic regional acts from all over the Mid-Atlantic, including a lot of the performing songwriters from the Asheville, N.C. area; David LaMotte, Jimmy Landry, David Wilcox and Chuck Brodsky. Local area musicians Bob Casey, Sonny Campbell, Al Coffey, Jane Gabrielle and many others also influenced my writing, my styles and, more than anything, my desire to play on until the end. I learned from all of these folks, and I'm eternally grateful to every one of them.
NOW
I'm also grateful to all those folks who have listened to me play live and to everyone who has given me feedback on my recordings and performances. I may take what you say and make immediate adjustments in a song, or I may file your comments for use in a future composition. But, rest assured. I do listen, and I'd like to think I'm learning.