Billy King and the Idylls at Downtown Home and Garden benefit for Avalon Housing. (camera phone shot)

An update/Catching up

It's been a little over two years since my Dad and I finished the new recording room our barn. After years of recording out of a tiny travel trailer this dedicated creative space is a huge improvement for me and I can't wait to see if it's reflected in my recording. I spent the winter of 2006 reworking and remixing unreleased material that had been accumulating for awhile and released the appropriately titled "Overdue". As a result, Overdue is a extreme mix of songs, some newer and some from when I was really young. I feel kind of bad pawning off Overdue as a new CD but it will have to do for now. I spent the winter of 2007 laying down guide tracks for what I hope to be my next truly new release. It was very exciting to actually start recording new material but also a little frustrating that the pace was much slower than I would like. I seem to be able to write much faster than I can record and am getting pretty overwhelmed with songs and ideas. It might be that I need to get some help to speed up the process. I'm so accustomed to doing everything myself in the studio though and haven't gotten up the nerve to abandon that approach yet. Still, I think it needs to happen.

After finishing "Overdue" I started thinking about playing live again and approached an old musical buddy Kip Godwin about putting something together. He was into it, rounded up some of his friends and I starting throwing every song I could think of at them! We even brought back some of the old King Brothers material! Speaking of which, my plan is to release a King Brothers box set later this year. Hearing that stuff again for the first time in awhile I can't figure out how we did that as kids with no help at all! Looking forward to getting it back in to circulation.

More later! -billy

Bio

Billy King’s musical pedigree goes back to the early 90’s when he played in and around Ann Arbor with his younger brother, Kenny. The King Brothers were a precocious pre-teen act, launched when they released a cassette of Elvis covers. This gained them invites to open for the WCBN Bash as well as to a variety of venues from the Annie Awards to the Art Fair to the Ark. The brothers soon graduated from Elvis covers to original material and became known as a band whose “talent and hipness are world-class.” (Alan Goldsmith, Current).

Drawing on this musical legacy that now goes back almost twenty years, Billy has never stopped writing and recording, and now returns to live performing with a five-piece band and an original music catalog of over 100 songs. The lyrics are simple, direct, and fresh; the music is upbeat, catchy folk/pop, supported by Billy’s virtuoso guitar playing, with “rows of slashing hooks stacked neatly atop carefully constructed arrangements.” (Beverly Paterson, Twist and Shake).

Billy, either solo or with his band, the Idylls, delivers a refreshing combination of youthful exuberance combined with musical maturity. It’s genuine good energy pop music and it leaves you with a smile!