David Wills - Barrooms To Bedrooms
In this week's episode we're featuring the debut of Tennessean David Wills: "Barrooms To Bedrooms" (1975). Wills, only 23 years old at the time, was taken under the wing of Epic labelmate Charlie Rich who produced this project (as well as his second album, rushed out in the second half of '75 to capitalise on "Barrooms To Bedrooms"). Apparently driven by a desire to give back and help Wills get a leg up in country music, four Charlie Rich compositions ended up on the final product, handled wonderfully by the natural country baritone of David Wills. An accomplished writer and multi-instrumentalist himself, Wills' interpretation of jukebox-ready originals like "There's A Song On The Jukebox", "The Barmaid" as well as the Rich-penned "Sittin' And Thinkin" and "My Mountain Dew" are remarkably strong for a man who seems to have disappeared as a recording artist post-1990. A hard country debut so solid that even Rich (perhaps jokingly) admitted jealousy at Wills' ability to interpret a country song.