Billy Crockett : then and now...

The co-founder of the Christian music label, Walking Angel, Billy Crockett has remained committed to his spiritual convictions. An ex-Nashville based session guitarist, Crockett has toured and/or recorded Christian music with Dion & the Belmonts, Emergence, 4Him, Steve Green, Cindy Morgan, and Rich Mullins. On his own, Crockett has recorded seven albums that have spawned such Christian hits as "Love Carrier," "Thankful Boys and Girls," "Song and Dance," "Are You," "Best of Friends," and "Love Waiting."

"Crockett has toured and/or recorded Christian music with Dion & the Belmonts, Emergence, 4Him, Steve Green, Cindy Morgan, and Rich Mullins. On his own, Crockett has recorded seven albums that have spawned such Christian hits as 'Love Carrier'"

Love for the guitar, the right word, a clear idea, and a refreshing honesty has become, for Billy Crockett, 25 years of hit-yielding albums, touring internationally, virtuoso guitar-playing, and has delivered him to a new perspective and a new album, Wishing Sky (Blue Rock Artists; released 2009).Billy studied jazz at North Texas State University and earned a degree in music engineering at the University of Miami before touring Mexico and Venezuela with Latin pop star José Luis (“El Puma”) Rodriguez.

 He has been featured on the BMI songwriter panel at Austin’s SXSW Music Festival, Artist-in-Residence at the Academy of Gospel Music Arts, and has been a guitar clinician for Yamaha International.  To spice it up, he also earned a master’s of Liberal Arts degree from Southern Methodist University.

 In 2000, Billy retreated from performing and recording and in the quiet, he and his wife, Dodee, began creating their shared dream, Blue Rock Artist Ranch and Studio, a top level recording facility, artist retreat and performance space in the Texas Hill Country.  As creative director, he has produced albums for some of music’s most vital artists, edits a thriving journal on creative process and hosts a popular concert series.

Billy’s aptly titled Passages (Blue Rock Artists, 2006), is an album of original classical guitar pieces.  His newest album, Wishing Sky, features timely and candid folk-pop story-songs; appearances by Jon Dee Graham, Ray Bonneville, Pierce Pettis and Lloyd Maines; flowing melodies and expressive lyrics; and the gusto of a man reunited with his first true love.“These songs are my most personal so far,” Crockett 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.”

Albums Include: 1989 Basic Stuff; Label Urgent..Any Starlight Night; Label Urgent 1995 Red Bird, Blue Sky; Label Walking Angel..1998 Watermarks; Label Walking Angel..In These Days; Label Walking Angel..1999 Simple Plans; Label Walking Angel..2009 Wishing Sky; Label Blue Rock Artists / Blue Rock Records..Carrier; Label Word Distribution; Portraits; Label Word