Wishing Sky... With 13 new original songs and help from bluesman Ray Bonneville, Jon Dee Graham, Pierce Pettis, arranger Paul English, and multi-instrumentalist Lloyd Maines, Billy has ventured into new territory. “These songs are my most personal so far,” he says. “I am singing the gypsies, the howling dogs, the gaps and mysteries, the sweetness and silent remains of life as I know it. I have tried to do what poets must—tell it true. And this is more fun now than ever.” The release of Wishing Sky marks the emergence of a veteran writer/ performer to the folk realm. Until this century, Billy had recorded nine acclaimed solo albums and had toured internationally for 25 years. Now, after a nine-year hiatus, he’s back. Merging a love of Texas soul, classical precision, and gospel music roots, Billy brings his remarkable acoustic guitar instincts and lyric observation into the mainstream. Billy has been a featured BMI songwriter at Austin’s SXSW Music Festival, Artist-in-Residence at the Academy of Gospel Music Arts, and a guitar clinician for Yamaha International. He holds a Master of Liberal Arts degree from SMU and a degree in Audio Engineering from the University of Miami. His concerts are flights of joy, irreverence, world class chops, humor, stories, and original songs. In the eighties, Billy recorded and toured with internationally renowned Latin and gospel music icons, José Luis Rodriguez, Rich Mullins, Sandi Patty, Dallas Holm, and others. Soon he was performing hundreds of solo concerts for audiences far and wide. His albums spawned hit singles for national Christian radio, and drew accolades from fans and critics. In 2000, Billy and his wife, Dodee, began to develop a vision of an artist sanctuary in the Texas Hills. Now complete, Blue Rock Artist Ranch and Studio is a retreat and first-rate music production facility for accomplished artists. At Blue Rock, Billy produces music, edits a journal on creative process, and hosts a popular concert series. During his respite from touring, Billy wrote and recorded Passages (2006), an album of intimate Spanish guitar pieces. In the newest release, Wishing Sky (2009), Billy finds himself musically exploring a wide landscape of subjects, all with the gusto of an artist who has returned to his great love of song-making.