Bill Wence is a writer, picker, singer and above all, a music lover who started his career in the late 50’s in California. At 14 years old he worked in the lettuce fields around Salinas and saved his money for a Wolensak tape recorder, so he could record his own music (and whatever music he could pick up on the radio). He put a band together at an early age and started playing piano with Bobby Bare when Bare was in the Army and while Bill was still a Junior in High School. Bill worked all over California in the early 60’s.
Living in Los Angeles in the mid-60’s and in the Northwest, and in Alaska in the late 60’s, he continued playing music in clubs and shows, as well as getting his start in radio and TV, working for the Midnight Sun Broadcasting Company in Juneau. During this period, Bill was booking shows in Alaska and brought Bobby Bare, Charlie Rich, Ernest Tubb and others to the Capital city.
Bill decided to move to Nashville in 1973 at the urging of Bobby Bare and went on the road playing piano with Tom T. Hall throughout the 70’s. As a writer, Bill has had Billboard cuts by Ronnie McDowell, Cristy Lane, Bobby G. Rice, Orion and others. He had four self-penned, self-produced and self-promoted Billboard singles in 1979-80, which led people to ask, “Hey, can you do that for me?” Well, he could and he did. Bill opened up his own promotion company in 1980 charting hundreds of Billboard singles in the next two decades with acts as varied as Collin Raye, Jerry Jeff Walker, Blackhawk, Randy Travis and many others.
As the Billboard charts became shorter and the radio stations became much more conservative, Bill started working with NPR (National Public Radio) as well as College, AAA (Album Adult Alternative) stations. Bill was one of the 30 founding members of the Americana Music Association. Some of his clients in the past decade have included James Talley, Paul Stookey, Mary Gauthier, Jonell Mosser, John Hall, The Great Divide, Red Meat, Mare Winningham, Ruthie and the Wranglers, Tom T. Hall, The Outlaws (Waylon Jennings-Jessi Colter-Tompall Glaser-Willie Nelson), Bobby Bare, The Amazing Rhythm Aces, Orleans, Michael Johnathon and The Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour.
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