Biography

With the same eye for a good story as Harry Chapin, with a view of the world that compares to that of Jim Croce, with music and lyrics that evoke artists such as John Hiatt and Cat Stevens, Bill Gawley is a singer/songwriter in the classic sense. His songs weave tales of dancers, lost loves, soap operas, and short-order cooks, from perspectives ranging from political to poignant, sensitive to side-splitting. His performances are always an adventure, with both the songs and the stories of their inspiration drawing the listener right into his compositions.

Bill Gawley blends elements of folk, rock, blues, country, and ragtime as he accompanies his strong, distinctive vocals with guitar and harmonica. Combining fingerstyle and flatpicking guitar techniques and the occasional open tuning, Gawley has created a clean, efficient instrumental style that has drawn from influences as diverse as James Taylor, Shawn Colvin, and Stephen Stills.

Bill Gawley has been performing for the public since 1978. In the 1980's, he spent nine years as half of the folk/rock duo Crimson Sky, and performed as a soloist at many clubs and coffeehouses in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Gradually making his way up the coast of New England, he settled in Brooksville, Maine in 1993. Since then, audiences have enjoyed his shows at restaurants, coffeehouses, and numerous benefit concerts, community concerns, summer fairs, and music festivals from Maine to Idaho. He has opened for nationally known artists, such as Loudon Wainwright III, Les Sampou, and David Mallett. In September of 1997, his song "All Night Long" was selected as the first place winner of the Kennebunk Folk Festival Songwriting Contest.

Bill Gawley's first album, Renovation Man & Other Alter Egos, was released in July, 1998. A second CD, Best Kept Secret, was released in August 2004.