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AMERICAN MUSIC
A TRIBUTE TO THE EVOLUTION
OF OUR POP CULTURE
Billy Hancock
www.billyhancock.com
www.myspace.com/billyhancockmusic
As a guest lecturer there is absolutely no one more informative and entertaining than music historian Billy Hancock!
Having been in the music business for over forty years with #1 hit songs in Europe, the very versatile Billy Hancock is not only a world class musician, playing and teaching guitar and bass guitar, but is also a singer, songwriter, record producer, teacher, TV and movie actor. He currently hosts a weekly cable TV show called, what else, “THE AMERICAN MUSIC SHOW.” He is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame’s in Europe & the United States. He has self penned over 100 published songs, appeared on countless LP compilations, with eight LP’s/CD’s under his own name. He is also both a WAMA and an INDIE award winner. Equally at home playing and singing the Blues, Jazz, American Roots, Rock and Roll, or Rockabilly, Billy just all around lives for music.
Billy has shared the stage over the last 40 years with the likes of Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, The Clovers, Link Wray, The Orioles, Big Joe Turner, jazz coronetist/trumpeter Ed Polcer, Janis Joplin (Big Brother & the Holding Company), guitar pioneer Les Paul, American Folk Rock Legend Sleepy LaBeef, Jump Blues singer/sax player Bull Moose Jackson, singer/pianist Amos Milburn, rockabilly singer Jack Scott, Robert Gordon, The New York Dolls, guitar genius Danny Gatton, Doug Salm, NRBQ, Arthur Big Boy Crudup (wrote first & many more of Elvis’s songs), Waylon Jennings, Rick Nelson, The Blasters, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Rockabilly pioneer Charlie Feathers, Jazz trumpeter Buck Clayton, Arlen Roth, Delta Blues singer Sleepy John Estes, Blues singer Johnny Shines, Emmy Lou Harris, Tracy Nelson & Mother Earth, The Byrds, The Lovin Spoonful, instrumental 60’s surf group The Ventures, Canned Heat, Graham Parson & the Flying Burrito Bros., The James Gang, The Guess Who, Arrowsmith, The Starland Vocal Band, and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, just to name a few.
On his weekly “American Music” Cable TV Show, Billy interviews guests as diverse as performing rock, blues and country bands, women songwriters, music producers, entertainment lawyers, and musical entrepreneurs both local and national, as well as world famous album cover design artists. His guest list just keeps on growing as old friends come through town on tours and he fits them into the program.
Having turned professional at 17 in January 1964, Billy attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music for a short time in the 60’s; then decided to see the world and follow his passion in life, playing music, which he did and still does. Along the way, he’s gained a few lifetimes of knowledge, which he loves to share with others.
His seminars are as entertaining as they are informative, giving student’s insight not only into the finer appreciation of music history, but anecdotes that only those close to the source would ever know.
He has lectured at places as diverse as the Smithsonian and the Landon Boys Schools. He has substitute taught in the Fairfax, VA County Schools, as well as teaching countless workshops, including a well attended guitar workshop just this summer at the Annual D.C. Blues Festival. He currently teaches at one of the area Music & Arts with 31 students ranging in age from seven years to the late fifties, and a never ending waiting line which is only held up by the lack of studio space and of course, time.
Billy explains his theory on American Roots Music, the evolution of our pop culture, and delves into the theory of Blues being the basis of all American pop music. Learn from Billy how our American Pop Culture was born from the Blues-based work songs and moans of the slaves in the cotton fields. Follow him as it moved to the brothels of Storyville, and then with its closure in 1917, the migration of the New Orleans musicians up north along the Mississippi. The end result….. the first “JASS” recording in 1917 (Livery Stable Blues) by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band . And a few years later, the first ever Blues recording (Moaning Blues) by Clara Smith came into being. These evolutions changed tonal color and rhythmic shape in music forever -- depending on the part of the country that the artist was indigenous to, whether it be the Delta, Piedmont, Gulf & Texas, etc. And the story goes on…..
Billy has perfected the art of lecture, holding the attention span of students ages 8 to 80, with the use of his own performance on acoustic and electric guitar, pre-recorded music, occasional guests, and his charismatic manner to explain the history of music. Never at a loss for words, Billy Hancock uses his irascible charm and savant quantity of wisdom on American roots music to provide an hour or more of unforgettable music history.
If you are interested in engaging Billy Hancock for a stimulating, unforgettable session of titillating conversation about music history and how we came to where we are in the American Pop Culture, please contact him at the following:
Carrie Hancock
cslark50@msn.com
703-501-7398
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