I was born in a small town called Port Jervis, NY, lived there till I was 13, then my Mom and Dad had a falling out , she went her way, he went his. It was a typical separation, he took the money, and she took the kids. It was a time that taught me what being poor was all about, and if you didn't take care of yourself, no one else was going to. I worked after school, and during the summer from the time I was 14, it taught me how to make a dollar, not to take your next meal for granted, but most of all it taught me how to stand on my own two feet, and I don't regret any of it. We moved 14 times in the next year, until we finally settled down in Scranton, PA., where I spent most of my adolescent years. I started writing my first songs when I was 14. I only knew 3 chords so they weren't anything special, but it fueled the fire so to speak.
About the time I turned 21, I decided I wanted to be a singer, so I got a guitar, taught myself from a book how to play it, learned 40 songs or so, and went for my first audition, at a bar called the Savoy. I got up and sang with the house band there from time to time, and the owner told me if I would learn to play guitar or piano, he'd give me a spot during the week, he was good to his word. One night turned into 6 days a week, and that was how I made a living most of my life. I got away from it from time to time but that stage, and the spotlight, would always lure me back.
As much as I loved entertaining, my first love was always song writing. Through the years I continued to try and improve that art form. About 14 years ago or so I compiled some of my personal tunes and headed into the studio. A friend, and a fan by the name of mike miskell offered to put up the funds to do an album, if he could be the promoter, for a percentage of the sales. It wasn’t a money making thing, he truly believed in my music, and he wanted to help. After several months of trying to make him understand the complications, and the financial pitfalls of promoting an artist , or an album, and trying to discourage him, I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. I was headed to Nashville and an album would be a nice thing to have with me. It didn’t take long to finish the album, which was called, “Thanks for the Memories”, and within a month or two I was headed to Nashville, TN.
When I got to Nashville, where I have lived for the past 12 years or so, I had no trouble finding work playing gigs down on Lower Broadway. In fact, for a time, I was Playing 3 gigs a day, at Roberts, the Music City Lounge, and a wild little honky tonk called the Wagon Burner. After 3 weeks of that, and turning my finger tips into ground round, I settled into two shows a day with my home gig being Roberts western world. I also found time to do a songwriters night at “The Broken Spoke“, with Debbie Champion. That’s where I was introduced to the Denny music company, who expressed an interest in my songs. They invited me down to their office, where John Denny diligently listened to the whole CD ( usually they just want to hear 2 or 3 songs ) I had compiled, complimented me on my voice, and then began asking me questions , the last one being” How long had I been in Nashville?” When I told him 3 weeks, the questions stopped, and as he led me to the door, he told me there was no doubt in his mind that someday I would right a hit song, but right now the stuff I was doing was too country. ( Imagine that in Country Music City, USA!! ) He said,” Go home, listen to what’s on the radio, write something like that, and then come back and see me.” The next day, I was talking to Wayne Perry ( who was a staff writer for Sony at the time ) down at Robert’s, he asked me how it went, and I told him what happened, and he explained to me, that though I was a good writer in his book, no one was going to take me seriously until I had been in Nashville for at least 7 years. It didn’t matter how long I had been writing before that, it took most of them 7 to 10 years to get a break, and they weren’t just going to hand it to someone who had only been there for 3 weeks. Though it made sense in a way, I couldn’t help but think about how many writers would get discouraged, and just go back home, depriving the world of what might have been some of the best songs ever written. It seemed to me the only two choices I had were to lie about how long I had been in town, and start writing rock and roll country. Well I wasn’t going to lie, and I certainly wasn’t going to try and be something I wasn’t and write rock and roll country. I decided to wait out the current trend.
I continued to play down on Broadway for the next year and a half, until we decided to buy a house, and make Nashville our permanent home. The bank did not view my current job as a stable income, so I gave up entertaining, and went to work as a manager for an oil company. I gave up the stage , but not the song writing. I continued to write for the next 7 or 8 years, always striving to improve.
About 3 years ago, I became unable to work, and made up my mind to return to promoting my songs. I built a home recording studio, learned to play bass, and a little lead guitar, and took some of the best material I had compiled over the years, and made the album I am currently promoting, called “ 15 Years Later “.
Likes: All kinds of music, being on the stage, sports of all kinds, fishing, boating, people in general, spending time with my family, and my two pitbulls.
Dislikes: Music that isn’t pleasant to the ears, people who try to appear to be something they aren’t, and anyone that uses the term “ Too country”.
Influences: Faron Young, Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard, Elvis, Neil Diamond, Kenney Rogers, way too many to list all of them here.
Goals: To find a way to use the internet to perpetuate a world wide fan base, and promote my music.
Accomplishments: Well right now I am a featured Artist on indie-music.com, Ranked in the top 50 Artists at indiecharts.com, Currently Have the #1 song at Ram Radio, and as of August 20th, 2007, just released my second album.
You can hear my material at these sites to:
www.billydarnell.com
www.myspace.com/billydarnellmusic
www.soundclick.com/billydarnellom 
[Country, Americana, Country Rock]
