William Beckmann: From Del Rio To Nashville

William Beckmann:  I put out my EP ‘Outskirts of Town’ last November. I had a single that was pushed on Texas radio for four or five months and in March 2019 they had the Texas Regional Radio Report Music Awards and I was invited to be a part of it. They day before the award show took place, they had the new faces competition.

WB:  It was five male acts and five females acts who are all new to the scene like myself and we did a song swap and the crowd got to vote who they liked the best. Whoever won got to perform the next night at the award show. Well, I ended up winning which got me the opportunity to sing in front of all the more established artists in the audience.

WB:  I sang two songs, one off my album and the other one I haven’t recorded yet and it was more traditional country old-school sounding and the audience LOVED it. I got a lot of compliments on that song.

WB:  I’ve had a lot of doors open up to me since then because of that.

WB:  People were being sweet and kind to me that night. Two people in the audience were Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen. Randy Rogers tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned around and saw him. I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time. I’ve been playing his music since I was thirteen, so I told him I was a big fan. Then he told me, “Man, I came here to tell you I really liked your song and we’re all drinking beer on my bus if you want to hang out. I’d like to get to know you.”

WB:  I go on his tour bus and he’s there with Wade Bowen and Kevin Fowler.

WB:  Yeah, they were in there drinking beer and playing songs. A couple days later my mentor, Radney Foster called me and said, “I don’t know what you’ve done, but lots of people are calling and asking me about you. I’m just letting you know that Randy Rogers is going to call you in a minute.” Sure enough a minute after I hung up, Randy Rogers called me and offers me a deal with his management company, Big Blind. I’m actually the newest Big Blind artist.

WB:  That has to do with Radney. He’s one of the few artists that has been able to successfully do that.

WB:   Back in the 80’s he had a lot of success with Foster & Lloyd and then his debut album in 1992, ‘Del Rio Texas 1959’ were all big Nashville records. When you think about it, the mid 90’s was when they were carving out what is now called Texas Country music. Radney has pioneered the Texas scene and what it is now, but he also had a presence in Nashville. He was able to gracefully present himself and be present in both scenes. That’s something I would like to do too.

WB:  Absolutely not. Now, more than ever, there is a big bridge between the two markets. I would like to be a part of that.

WB: (Laughing) Thank you. That’s awfully nice of you to say that.  

WB:  I get that from time to time.

WB:  Absolutely, I’ve written somewhere between 450 and 500 songs.

WB:  I was sixteen years old when I met Radney Foster at the Del Rio High School. He came to visit one of my teachers, who happens to be good friends with my father, and grew up with Radney. My teacher knew I was interested in music and he told me Radney would be visiting the school and he wanted me to meet him.

WB:  That first meeting was brief, and I didn’t get to exchange too many words with him. I did have an opportunity to sit down with him the next time he came to Del Rio.

WB:  He asked me what did I want. I told him I wanted to do what he does. Although at that time I was just learning how to play and sing. I might have written one song. I wasn’t thinking about songwriting, but he told me I had to start writing songs. He said if I wanted to do this professionally for the rest of my life, I had to have my own material. Then he told me the first 100 songs don’t count.

WB:  Exactly. He said the next time he came back to Del Rio, he wanted me to have written 100 songs. He said, “If you do that, I will take you seriously and I’ll help you.” He knew I could sing because I could sing George Strait songs.

WB:  It was about a year later. At this point I was a senior in high school. He asked if I wrote the 100 songs and I told him, “Yes sir, I did.” Then he asked if any of them were good and I said no. He told me that was the whole point. Then, shortly after that I started to realize the songs were getting better and better.

WB:  We plan on it.

WB:  We’re thinking about it. I think less is more these days. It’s easier for people to digest small crumbs at a time instead of the whole loaf of bread.

WB:  Now with this new management, Radney and Wade Bowen and Randy Rogers want to be a part of the next project. These are guys that I’ve always respected and looked up to. It’s a dream come true for me. Just the idea that those guys want to write songs with me and have their names on it.

WB:  Yes, but before I lived in Nashville, I lived in Austin for two years.

WB:  That is what really helped my songwriting. I was in school for two years so that’s when I was living in Austin, but then I transferred to Belmont University in Nashville. When I moved to Austin, I was still writing songs and trying to figure it all out. I don’t want to say I was naive, but I was oblivious to a lot of what a song should sound like.

WB:  In Nashville there is a cookie cutter formula of writing and it’s not a bad thing. It works and makes people a lot of money, but it’s not necessarily the way I write. I think if I had moved to Nashville first and being so green, I would have thought that’s how it’s supposed to be done. The idea of co-writing with a bunch of people and finding a catchy hook to make a hit song is the way it’s done there. In Austin, things were more malleable and my ideas, regardless of what they were or how unorthodox or unmarketable a song might be, was completely fine.

WB:  So, I took what I learned in Austin and moved to Nashville and there I learned discipline. I learned how to make a song into something that people were going to want to listen to. I learned how to really hone in on it and work with it.  Overall, I think it was really healthy for me to live in Austin and hear all the different types of music they have there. I was a sponge taking in all these different types of music. Then in Nashville the Pro Songwriters helped me refine my art.