- Bill
Lyerly
"
"Prodigal Son" Produced by ROY DEA
(LSI Records LSI 8206-1) 1982
Sound
clip of "Down On My Luck"
- from Prodigal Son - 1
minute download
frequently coming across artists whose careers as well as lives seemed
to link together. Linked by a common bond of the same concept of a
particular genre of music. Not just "linked" but woven together as in
a fine tapestry. Each thread different but yet each one an important
part of a creation to be admired and which would stand the test of
time and circumstance. Such names as Bill Lyerly, Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Steve Earle, and Steve Young come to mind. I feel these artists were
far ahead of their time, refusing to conform to the standards of the time,
content to wait for their time to come. I feel Roy surely recognized the
extraordinary talents of each one and could foresee the time when the
music industry would evolve, and so would their well deserved recognition."
- "Excerpts from an interview with Bill Lyerly"
"Veteran Player Bill Lyerly Gets His Blues Thing Going "
- by Philip Van Vleck
guitarist/songwriter Bill Lyerly, thinking that he looked like such
an average, normal guy while he was telling me story after story
straight from the heart of the music biz. The accumulated weight of
all the years and all the beers and all the tears indicated that he
was, in fact, anything but normal except by music industry
standards and in no way average.
- Lyerly's story starts back in Kinston and moves
to ECU, where he
out of college as a senior, in January of '75, and formed Super Grit
Cowboy Band with Clyde Mattocks. I knew that was what I
wanted to do. Music was a whole lot more fun than majoring in
English and minoring in Journalism. Clyde, incidentally, is
arguably the best musician I've ever worked with. I think he's the
best dobro player on the planet."
Bill had been playing rock during his college days, but when he
started the band with Mattocks he took the country plunge.
"So, in 1979 I got a call at my dad's house from Floyd Cramer. I
had cut an album in a little studio I where I was working and a
friend of mine had turned it into 100 eight-track tapes so I could
sell them. I sent one of them to a friend in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
His next-door neighbor was Frank Broyles [head football coach at
the University of Arkansas] and Frank's son, Tommy, was a guitar
player. My friend played the tape for Tommy, who liked it. Then
either Frank or Tommy let Floyd Cramer hear it when Floyd was
visiting. That led to the phone call."
- Lyerly talked with Cramer, which led Bill
to a conversation with
Jerry Bradley, at that time president of RCA Nashville. Lyerly
eventually headed for Nashville and went into the studio with
producer Roy Dea. Bill got a record deal with RCA. The label put
out two singles but never released the album. "Roy got permission
from RCA to release my album on the LSI label," Bill explained,
"which was the same label that released the first Steve Earle EP,
Pink & Black. Roy and I went on to do an album called Ground
for the Red Ash label. The money behind that label came
from Red Ash Coal in Virginia. When American car sales took that
bad dip in the early '80s, the demand for steel went down, which
caused the demand for coal to drop and Red Ash went belly up and
that record deal went south [welcome to Economics 101]. Gary
Stewart was on Red Ash too. The first Red Ash Records
Christmas party was in a hotel in Red Ash, Virginia. Gary Stewart,
Steve Earle and The Bill Lyerly Band played the party." Bill
added: "H'ors d'ouevres and an open bar."
"After that, things changed," Lyerly continued.
"We were big into
that Austin City Limits progressive country
sound and that started
to die out. That was where my heart was,
because I felt like that
music had a direct link right into the
heart of real country music. I
sure didn't like the direction country
was headed so I decided I'd
change too... get into some blues. I just
couldn't play the crap
Nashville was calling country."
"Higher Ground" produced
by Roy Dea
(Red Ash Records) 1984
Everything's O.K. (Bill
Lyerly)
Suzie (D. Hawkins, Lewis,
Broadwater)
No Way To Cry (Tommy Heath)
Why'd You Lead Me On (Bill
Lyerly)
When I'm Gone (Bill
Lyerly)
Lonesome Orn'ry And Mean
(Steve Young)
Crosscut Saw (R. G. Ford)
Back To The Island (Leon
Russell)
I Really Ain't Surprised
(Bill Lyerly)
Bill Lyerly
— lead vocals, guitars, piano
Charlie Collins
— harmony vocals, guitars
Ron Stenquist
— bass
Phil Price
— drums
"Prodigal Son" Produced by ROY
DEA
(LSI Records LSI
8206-1) 1982
My Baby's Comin' Home Again Today
(Bill Lyerly)
Trying To Drink You Off My Mind
(Bill Lyerly)
Am I Losing You (Bill Lyerly)
Lonesome Whistle (Bill
Lyerly)
Mystery Train (Herman
Parker, Sam Phillips)
I'm Glad You Walked Out (Bill
Lyerly)
Prodigal Son (Mick Jagger,
Keith Richards)
Late At Night (Bill Lyerly)
Setting Me Up (Mark Knopfler)
Down On My Luck (Steve Earle,
Tom Benjamin)
Bill Lyerly — lead vocals,
guitars
Charlie Collins
— harmony vocals, guitars
Ron Stenquist
— bass
Phil Price —
drums
- . On
24 March 1998, Rivière
International Records
