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William Kitchens is a man who has seen more than a few dreams come true! As a professional entertainer, singer and songwriter his unique presentation of original and cover material has won audiences over throughout the southeast. From the honky tonks and hotel clubs to concert stages and television, William Kitchens has just about done it all. Not to mention writing a hit country song...which we will later.
Jennifer Jung who was William's high school chorus teacher deserves much of the credit for his early success. She insisted that he study guitar to give the young singer an outlet to accompany himself. By the end of his first semester as a ninth grade freshman William had already landed jobs playing the popular "happy hour" clubs in and around Atlanta, Georgia. William's parents were one hundred percent behind his endeavors as long has he kept his grades up. Not only did he keep his grades up, but he kept his first fans as well. It's not uncommon to see his parents at just about every weekend engagement.
Armed with encouragement William began to make a living performing and started to develop his songwriting skills. In 1978 at the age of seventeen he won first runner up in a national songwriting competition sponsored by KFC and Coca Cola. The song "Last Tour" about the tragic death of Elvis Presley was a haunting and poetic effort by the young tunesmith.
Just two years later William paid a visit to his birthplace in Macon, Georgia where he met with Randy Roman at the once legendary Capricorn Records. Seeing his potential Randy began to work with William grooming him for a recording contract. Unfortunately the label filed for bankruptcy a few months later. Not to be discouraged William continued to work on his songwriting and his energetic stage performance.
While his fan base increased over the next few years William wasn't content just moving from club to club. In the fall of 1987 he started making trips to Nashville, Tennessee and right away began signing his work with music publishers. The doors were open and the face of country music was changing. Groups like "The Desert Rose Band" and "Foster & Lloyd" were bringing a new sound to the industry and William as his family would say, returned to his roots.
Then one evening in 1991, William and guitarist Scott Ferrell would
write the song that would be their first chart success. After seeing the "title"
on a friends button in the club where they were performing William mentioned to Scott what
a great idea it would be for a song. The next night during a rehearsal "Bad Dog, No
Biscuit" was written in just thirty minutes. Knowing they had a hit on their hands
they met
withJudy Harris, a well known figure
in the Nashville music publishing industry who signed the song immediately. After some
twenty years of effort in the music business on January 25, 1995, William got to hear
"Giant Records" recording artist "Daron Norwood" perform one of his
songs on radio for the first time. The dream of every songwriter had come true!
William moved to Nashville later that year to concentrate full time on his songwriting. From August of 1995 until June of 1998 William spent three years living in Nashville doing just that. There he also spent ten of those months performing at the world famous Tootsie's Orchid Lounge where a who's who's list of country music legends made names for themselves. William was honored to perform on the same stage where such greats as Willie Nelson, Roger Miller, Kris Kristofferson, Charlie Pride and a whole host of others began their careers. The experience of performing there and the time he spent in Tennessee was exciting, rewarding and humbling. Exciting and rewarding due to the success of signing much of his catalog with major music publishers and humbling in meeting so many great songwriters who like William struggle in a highly competitive music industry where talent is abundant and breaks are few.
Having the industry doors open William moved back to Atlanta in June of 1998 to team up again with Scott Ferrell. The highly popular duo that built a huge following during their years together, Kitchens & Ferrell are once again drawing capacity crowds in the clubs and pleasing audiences everywhere.
William continues to write making trips back to Nashville to sign and pitch songs from his country music catalog. He is also working on a pop album and is considering a venture into the comedy market with several song parodies and some other original comedy music he has written including the hysterical rap version of "Bad Dog, No Biscuit". In the past year William has had interest in his tunes from such artists as Patty Loveless, Deana Carter, Kevin Sharp, and Lee Ann Rimes. With that kind of interest it won't be long before William Kitchens hears more of his work on the radio and sees a few more dreams come true.