I was born in North Carolina, Orange County. I got my first start in the noise making business singing in the Baptist choir. Choir singin' was nice, and I loved going to choir camp an' all, but my singin' changed from there. From the first time I heard my granddaddy play clawhammer banjo and imitate a train whistle on his harmonica, my soul was captured by the raw sounds of hillbilly music.
Then something called rockabilly floated past my ears, and I was completely smitten. That raucous rhythm found a home deep in my veins, and soon I was a bonafide junkie. I got my first guitar when I was 13 and started in on it, finding chords to back up my crooning. Later on, I picked up the string bass and then played both guitar and string bass in several bands, including bluegrass, oldtime country western swing, and honkytonk. I've freelanced around a bit with some other styles too, but it's honkytonk & rockabilly that resonate with the biggest bang for me.
Currently I'm playing with 2 bands, Girl Howdy - an all-gal core, with guitar, fiddle, steel guitar, & piano - rounded out with a roving cast of drummers & stringbass players. We have a ball playing 1950's style honkytonk music. Catch our website at www.girlhowdyband.com, or search for us in myspace too.
The other band is a dance band called Slippery Sneakers, which is a fusion of zydeco and R&B styles. I'm a hired gun in this combo, playing the "scrubboard", a percussion instrument that looks like a metal bib with ridges in it. I have no idea what I'm doing, and it all started at a party just tryin' this fool thing out. A bandleader that happened to be there, liked what I was doing and hired me for some gigs. That was with a band called Dirty Rice. Since then I've kept being hired back, and now I play with the Slippery Sneakers band, whose website is www.slipperysneakers.com
Then every now & again, I get to perform my original material, the stuff I recorded for El Toro Records. They're a real cool label with some real cool music. Check 'em out at www.eltororecords.com My release with them is called "Rocket Girl" available at cdbaby.com Betsy-DawnWilliams
From El Toro Records:
This first CD will please both the fans of female rockabilly Wanda Jackson style and the lovers of the Ronnie Dawson and Planet Rockers sound; 12 original compositions and just one cover backed by rockin' music aces as Graham Tichy (Bones Maki) Jimmy Haggerty (Lustre Kings) and Jeff Potter!
Pick
up your copy of Catch That Rockabilly Fever today. Makes the perfect Christmas gift. For U.S. customers, you can
buy it at www.mcfarlandpub.com
for $39.95 plus $5 shipping or Amazon.com for $35.95. Outside of the
U.S., Amazon.com is your best bet for the lowest price in shipping. You
may also try to order it from your local bookstore. More than likely,
they can order it for you.
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Catch
That Rockabilly Fever by Sheree Homer is a candid account of life on the
road and in the studio with '50s legends and today's talent. These are personal
stories told by the artists themselves. It's a soft cover biography that will
be published in October 2009 by McFarland Publishers and retail for $39.95. It
will have never before seen photos (strictly 1950's photos of the legends) and
rare stories from the artists themselves. Catch
That Rockabilly Fever will be approximately 350 pages in length. It will be
unlike any other rockabilly book on the market since it will include some of
today's hottest young talent plus insightful stories from 1950's backing
musicians and engineers for the first time, such as James Kirkland (Bob Luman,
Ricky Nelson), Richie Frost (Ricky Nelson), Steve Handford (Bobby Lee
Trammell), Tony Austin (Rock and Roll Trio), Stanley Walker (Ray Smith), Bobby
Poe (Wanda Jackson), Vernon Sandusky (Big Al Downing) and Bob Sullivan
(KWKH/Louisiana Hayride). Foreword by acclaimed writer Ken Burke.
These forty-six artists will have individual profiles and one
glamorous photo per musician: Glen Glenn, Lew Williams, Art Adams, Elvis
Presley, Ricky Nelson, Bob Luman, Ed Bruce, Dickey Lee, Jack Earls, Hayden
Thompson, Maddox Brothers and Rose, Sonny Burgess, Carl Mann, Ray Smith, Johnny
Powers, Larry Donn, Pat Cupp, Ronnie Hawkins, Bobby Lee Trammell, Huelyn
Duvall, Gene Summers, Sonny West, Buddy Holly, The Collins Kids, Wanda Jackson,
Charlie Gracie, Big Al Downing, Laura Lee Perkins, The Rock and Roll Trio,
Narvel Felts, The Dave and Deke Combo, Kim Lenz, Go Cat Go, High Noon, Larry
Cole, Cari Lee Merritt, Josie Kreuzer, Eddie Clendening, Suzy and Buddy Dughi,
The Casey Sisters, Carl Sonny Leyland, Dawn Shipley, Sue Moreno, Ruby Ann, and Tex
Rubinowitz.
Happy VALBORG! In Sweden we light big Bonfires tonight... And tomorrow we have the Union parade and politians speaking... well I don't know if U do anything like that but happy VALBORG anyhow!!!
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