By Judy Shields
Hollywood, California (The Hollywood Times) 02/29/2024
“Country music is the greatest thing in the whole world,” declares country singing sensation David Wills, a Nashville area native. With his trademark rich baritone voice and his passion for artistically orchestrating the perfect alignment of words in a great country song, Wills has been recognized as one of Nashville’s leading singers and songwriters for decades.
Wills charted twenty-one songs on the country Billboard and recorded three country albums between 1974 and 1988. As a songwriter, he penned hit songs for stars like George Strait, John Schneider, Keith Whitley, John Michael Montgomery, Patty Loveless, Janie Fricke, Sawyer Brown, and Garth Brooks.
Wills was born in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1951 and rose to prominence in the mid-1970s. Altogether, he charted twenty-one songs between 1974 and 1988. Two of his songs reached the Top Ten spot in the US Country Billboard chart: “There’s A Song On The Jukebox” and “From Barrooms To Bedrooms”. Those songs reached the #5 and #7 spot, respectively, in Canada. David’s career began after he won a talent contest in Lakeland, Tennessee, right outside of Memphis. He was signed by Charlie Rich’s manager, Seymour “Sy” Rosenberg, to Epic Records. Within a few months, David was playing at famous venues like Madison Square Garden while touring with Rich.
David wrote for Charley Pride Music for forty years. Arguably the biggest success he had as a songwriter, was his contribution to Garth Brooks’ discography with “Wild Horses”. This rodeo song appeared on his sophomore album, No Fences, his charity album The Garth Brooks Collection, and his first Limited Series box set. Altogether, the sales were around 23 million. When the song was released as a single nearly a decade later in November of 2000, it climbed to the #7 spot on the US Country Billboard chart and reached the #50 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
Wills released another album in 1975, entitled Everybody’s Country. It featured a cover of Rich’s “All Over Me” and the rock-n-roll standard “Long Tall Sally.” After developing a close association with Blake Mevis who managed George Strait at the time, Wills signed to record deal with RCA. Wills then released New Beginnings which included “The Eyes Of A Stranger” produced by Mevis.
Thirteen years later, Wills released Line On Love. The title track was included on John Michael Montgomery’s debut album in October of 1992. The largely gospel-themed CD also included “You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are,” which was on Patty Loveless’ sixth album Only What I Feel. Wills co-wrote both songs. “Line on Love” was the last release of Wills’ music until now.
Collectively, David’s compositions have sold north of 38 million copies.
David has put out two new albums since November of 2022, The Singer The Songwriter and Just For The Record (in June 2023). The first album features two new songs, three re-recordings of his notable 1970s songs (“Paper Thin Walls”, “There’s A Song On The Jukebox” and “From Barrooms To Bedrooms”), and his versions of songs he wrote for the aforementioned artists. The second album contains brand new country music, with energetic tunes like “Sweet”, “You Ought To See Her In Love”, “Life Behind Bars”; soulful songs such as “Jesus Lives Here”, “Stained Glass”, “When A Plan Comes Together”; good ol’ heartbreak tunes like “Not To Mention My Heart” and “Thank God I’m A Cowboy” and more. So far, he has won several awards for some of these beautiful songs. He is currently nominated in several categories for the ISSA Awards which will occur in August in Atlanta.
I have to say that David Wills is an amazing songwriter and now he has given us two CDs with all his written songs, some that others have recorded and a whole album with songs he wrote but not yet recorded. David said it was amazing to record his written songs for the new album and that Bill Shore, his writing partner for over 40 years assisted him in the production of the new album.
I asked him what it was like to go back to the studio to give his voice to the songs he had written and he was able to record now. He said he always wanted to go back into the studio and put his vocals on the songs he had written for other people and with the opportunity presented to him by his manager Wesley, we get the new CD. “Over the years as a songwriter, I’ve always had a lot of great players that I know up here in Nashville, Nashville is covered up by some of the greatest musician here or anywhere in the world. I had already handpicked a bunch of guys I’ve been working with over the years that I really wanted to come into the studio and work with. I go together with Duncan Mullins, who was the leader on the session and plays bass. He did all the charts and arranging. We handpicked a few other to come in. We had the most fun.”
They all had a ball bringing his songs to music and in his soulful voice.
“I have never met a more talented singer or songwriter in my life,” claimed Wesley Fricks, “it will be easy to understand why these two albums will resonate with country music fans around the world.”
The best way to describe the two-album project is that there will be a little something for everyone!
