Album Notes

Billy Southern
Biography


Billy Southern grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, the childhood home to Bob Dylan and industrial port city to the Midwestern United States. His father a carpenter, and his mother a nurse, and without much money, let alone interest in continuing his education after high school, Billy joined the Marines and spent over six years traveling all over the country and living in far off places like Shanghai, China and Oslo, Norway. At age twenty he took up playing the guitar to pass idle time in the barracks and would soon start penning songs and poems. Over the years he has developed a style of playing and songwriting

Currently Billy resides once again in northern Minnesota in the township of Lakewood, just north of Duluth. He lives with his Norwegian wife, two daughters, and chocolate lab in a house in the deep woods he and his father built in 2001.

In early 2009 one can expect to see the release of his latest album "El Chivato" which is near completion. Billy’s debut album, Swamp Dog, was released in 2007. His style has been compared to John Prine, Gregg Brown, and Neil Young. When asked who his influences were it becomes clear there really isn’t one person, let alone ten you could put a finger on.
“My dad used to wake us kids up to Jerry Reed every morning. It was either him, Jim Croce, or Chet Atkins. So I guess you’d have to include those guys. I still love their music. Todd Snider is a huge influence of a more modern time, though I think he echoes them old guys too. And Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, Dire Straits, I really could go on…(laughs).” Billy Southern.

You can always catch Billy playing shows around the Duluth/Superior area, with occasional tours to other parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Band members typically include some phenomenal guitar playing by guitarist Barry Schwartz, and from time to time upright bass player Karl Anderson joins in the mix.