Bill Durhams' cover of rockabilly smash "PINK CADILLAC" was selected for inclusion on "The United States of Americana, Vol. 4." The compilation also includes hipsters BR549 and Alt-Country gem Bobby Bare, and is being serviced to over 200 Americana/Roots Music stations by Shut Eye Records of Atlanta, Georgia. Durham's music is also available to radio through AirPlayDirect.com and RadioSubmit.com.
"Pink Cadillac" was written by Rockabilly Hall of Fame artist Jimmy Evans of Helena, Arkansas, who played bass guitar for Conway Twitty in the 1950s, as well as with Levon Helm and Ronnie Hawkins prior to The Band. The song was featured on Durham's debut album, "My Kind Of Music" and received extensive radio play internationally, even ranking #19 of the 200 most played songs in Europe according to The European Country Music Association on their ECMA Top 100 Country Radio Chart. The song was also ranked at #1 in Austria, in the Top 5 in the United Kingdom and Germany and the Top 20 in Ireland, France, Belgium, Norway, Sweden and Spain according to the European Country Music Association. "Pink Cadillac" also peaked at #1 on The IndieWorld Country Chart in the United States.
Durham is presently working on a new album and on the US Festival circuit in support of his last record, which is distributed and marketed by Honky Tonkin' Music of Texas.
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Bill Durham Biography
Clarksdale, Mississippi is known by the musically hip as home to the Crossroads and it's blues legacy, but if Bill Durham has anything to do with it, Clarksdale will soon be analogous for a resurgence of real country roots and rockabilly music.
Bill cut his teeth on Walloon, Haggard and Cash shortly after getting his first guitar at 11-years-old. By the time he was 16, he was a seasoned professional opening for Ernest Tubb with the Texas Troubadours backing him.
Bill's father, a Sports Hall of Fame member at Delta State University, knew that his son was ready for the next level. When Bill turned 18 he got the Christmas gift of his dreams - his father sent him to Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis. Producing Bill's first single, "She's Gone But Not Forgotten," was legendary Sun session player Stan Kestrel, who had written songs for Elvis Presley. "Mississippi Under My Feet" followed, with no less than Nashville's Don Singleton (Randy Travis, Conway Twitty) producing.
Fast forward to the year 2000. Serving a self-imposed musical hiatus for nearly six years, Bill had become engrossed in the family business, a farm parts and supply company. As fate would have it, he ran across a deal he could not refuse; a college buddy offered to sell him a sweet Taylor guitar. Maybe it was something as simple as the tone and beautiful spirit of the instrument that rejuvenated Bill's passion for music, maybe it was because he had just bought the guitar from country music sensation Steve Azar, who encouraged Bill that "music was good for the soul." Whatever it was, the spark was back.
In no time Bill was fired up and back in the studio, this time to record a full length CD of his take on classic songs that he had grown up with. The result became the critically acclaimed My Kind of Music, a mix of classic county, rockabilly and Southern roots music that was released in 2004.
Still involved in the family business, when Bill is not busy working with farmers in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, he breaks to marvel at his radio chart success from around the world. The rockabilly single "Pink Cadillac" from My Kind of Music charted at #19 in early 2005 on the ECMA Top 100, Europe's oldest country music chart. The single also reached #1 on Australia's ILR Radio Charts, and went to #1 onIndieWorld, the world's first independent country music chart. "You Ain't Foolin' Nobody" also went to #1 on the IndieWorld Chart in 2005.
Bill Durham had no idea when he released My Kind of Music that his music would be celebrated worldwide. It happened by chance when a DJ in Sweden asked for a promo copy, and then DJs from all over the world contacted Bill after seeing him appear on the charts.
Currently in pre-production stages for another release, Bill Durham is looking forward to getting back into the studio and making a new record. Much like the cotton and soybean farmers that turn to Bill for equipment needs, he has got fans in line around the world waiting for his new musical shipment to arrive.
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"Bill Durham makes it known he's no ordinary revivalist. The man is a proudly staunch traditionalist, true, with an affinity for the country and rockabilly of the '50s and '60s yet without being either a tepid copyist or giving the music a forced psycho-billy update.... Playing with a retro sense of phrasing and swing that finds a soul mate in the late Sun Records great Malcolm Yelvington, whose voice Durham's resembles." Bill Ellis, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN
"...Rockabilly rides again" Paul Davis- Country Music Roundup magazine, UK
"Carl Perkins would love this." Ted Clark- Greenland Radio, Holland
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