Publishing: Harley1950
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Publishing Affiliation: BMI
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Album Title: Let The Song Play
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Record Label: Progress Consulting
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Bio/Tour:
Bill Brantley was the Titus half of Van & Titus, featured on elf Records label. He was lead singer, co-writer and musical director for the group Net Wt 14 Karat Black, Luna Records After the group dissolved Bill continued to write songs and send them to various record labels.
While sitting at home one day he received a call from a friend from his hometown of Knoxville, TN. The friend, Clifford Curry called and asked Bill are you coming to Nashville tomorrow and Bill asked Clifford why? Clifford said they are recording one of your songs. Bill commented, no, I have other plans. Clifford went on to say do you know who the arranger is going to be, its Bobby Martin. He did the arrangement for the song Me and Mrs. Jones and If You Don`t Know Me By Now and countless other hits for Philadelphia International Records.
With that information, Bill said I will be there tomorrow! During one of the recording session breaks, Bobby Martin came into the control room and asked (John R./John Richbourg), why didn't he record the song with Joe Simon? He sounds good on the demo. John R. said to Bobby that wasn't Joe Simon it was Bill Brantley, he wrote the song and that was his voice on the demo. Bobby went on to introduce himself to Bill and said you have the best song of the session today.
He asked Bill if he had ever tried the recording business and Bill said yes, however, I have a family to provide for and I have not been able to sustain a positive cash flow so far in the music business. Bobby said at some point you should give it another try, and if you like, you could send some of your songs to our office but, most importantly, take some time in life to follow your dream.
However, it takes a certain amount of dedication, passion, and tenacity to pursue one's dreams. When the recording sessions were over, John R. told Bill that if he writes the songs he, John R., would sponsor a recording session for Bill. They followed up with a recording session at Muscle Shoals, Alabama in the Wishbone Recording Studio. They went on to release a cover song A Little Bit More on Monument Records, on the Sound Stage Record label.
Just as the song was starting to build momentum on the charts Bill received a call from John R. stating that Monument Records was closing down and Fred Foster, the CEO of Monument Records, was getting out of the music business. With that said, back to the drawing board for Bill. Bill continued to work in the nuclear energy field as a consultant.
He just happened to take an assignment to assist Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in their restart efforts. Browns Ferry happened to be located 30 miles from one of the most renowned recording places in the world, Muscles Shoals, AL. Bill went to Muscle Shoals to speak with Steve Moore, recording engineer at Wishbone Studio, to possibly set up a recording session.
During his visit, Steve informed Bill that he had built his own recording studio so Steve and Bill decided to co-produce a demo recording session with Steve providing the studio and Bill paying the musicians costs. Things were now looking promising and in fact, after about two months into the project, they were working with some of the best session players in the country.
Shortly thereafter, however, Steve called and asked Bill if he would be able to come down and visit them in the studio and once Bill got there Steve told him that he was closing down his studio for personal reasons. Once again, it was back to the drawing board.
Bill took over the production of the project and the musicians continued work with him at various studios. With a demo in hand, Bill went to Nashville and got an offer to produce his own material on a new label but was told that it would take about a year to get things underway. During the same time, Bill had established himself as an independent contractor in the nuclear energy sector and had forged a path that was promising; so much so, that he was in the process of starting his own company.
With all the ups and downs Bill had experienced in the music business, and after weighing all of his options at the time, he decided to take a sabbatical. During this time, he was diagnosed with cancer so the sabbatical lasted two decades.
Bill continues to write songs and in 2017 he started to again passionately pursue his dreams of producing an album as an introduction back into the music business. Bill went to visit with a lifelong friend, Barbara Rodgers, who is a co-writer on the title song Let The Song Play. Out of the blue she suggested a visit with Narada Michael Walden. During the visit Walden made the comment that you need to have a cover song and he suggested that Make It With You would be a good prospect. Thats how the song became part of the album.
Booking Agent:
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William A. Brantley
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