TOP: WIL NANCE COURTESY OF OXFORDARTS.COM
BOTTOM: BYRON HILL COURTESY OF BYRON HILL MUSIC.COM
Seasoned songwriters Byron Hill and Wil Nance are set to perform Friday evening at the Powerhouse, as part of the Songwriters on the Road series sponsored by the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council.
Those in the audience will have the chance to meet the masterminds behind the familiar songs from country artists such as George Strait, Brad Paisley, Ray Charles and others.
Hill and Nance have known each other for about 30 years while working together in the Nashville music industry, but they said they each achieved their love of songwriting at a much younger age.
Hill started playing the guitar at age 10 and said he knew he wanted to be a songwriter at the age of 16. He attended college at Appalachian State University, where his parents urged him to take science classes and to go into the medical field.
More often than not, however, he found himself playing his music for people at the ASU student center “coffee house.”
He moved to Nashville to pursue his career in music full-time in 1978.
“I had no other real career aspirations,” Hill said. “There were things that I felt like I could fall back on, but nothing that was tugging on me like music.”
Nance began playing guitar at age 11 and, after high school, joined a band and began to write songs before moving to Nashville in 1987.
“By the time I moved to Nashville, I was about 30 years old and all the aspirations of being an artist had gone away,” Nance said. “My main focus really became about writing songs because I feel like that’s what became most natural to me.”
Both writers agreed that inspiration often comes from their surroundings.
“The ideas come from anywhere out there,” Hill said. “I like to read. I like to listen. I pick up on ideas, and I keep pieces of paper and notebooks everywhere. So, anytime I get an idea I have a notebook within arm’s length.”
One example that Nance cited was Brad Paisley’s song “She’s Everything.”
“I wrote that song about my wife,” Nance said. “I just started thinking about her and everything I love about her that I see everyday, and it just so happened that everything I see about her also applies to other girls, so it just translated to people that way.”
Songs performed by George Strait hold special meaning for both Hill and Nance. In fact, Hill wrote George Strait’s first number one song, “Fool Hearted Memory.”
“Having written George Strait’s first number one, it will always be a favorite song because of how it impacted my life,” Hill said. “It’s kind of like having a kid that grows up to be president of the United States. You’re pretty proud of that when you’ve helped an artist become his story.”
Nance received his first big break in the music industry when Strait decided to record his song “Where Have I Been All My Life.”
Neither Hill nor Nance expects to lay down their song-writing pens anytime soon.
“Does a doctor ever really put down his stethoscope?” Hill asked. “Probably not. Once in a while, he’s probably going to check his grandkids out and make sure they’re OK.”
Nance echoed this sentiment.
“I may never retire,” Nance said. “There may come a day when I just decide I want to sit on a beach, but I’ll probably keep riding this bus for a while and keep on writing.”
These talents will be at the Powerhouse from 7-9 p.m. Friday to talk about the songwriting process and aid young songwriters in gaining inspiration.
