I was born and raised in southeastern Licking County, Ohio living on my Great Grandparents farm. I grew up working on the farm, plowing fields, making hay, and raising cattle. Every Sunday morning we attended Church, then family dinner at Grandparents and Grandma’s. It was a family affair, with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. You might say it was a simple life, it was and a great way of life too.
As a young boy growing up in the foothills of Appalachia, I learned to love the outdoors. Spending hours in the woods and along the Brushy Fork Creek.
Early influences of music came from listening to my mother sing in Church. She had a most wonderful voice! Also, my dad would put on a whole stack of 33 LP records on the console stereo. Old country like Hank Williams Sr, Jim Reeves, Hank Locklin, and others. Like most country folks we watched Hee Haw, Midwestern Hayride, The Jimmy Dean Show and of course The Grand Ole Opry.
After graduating from high school I went to work on cable tool drilling rigs. Finished concrete, went to Nebraska and worked as a Welder for a short time. Then back to Ohio and the oil rigs. Then in the early 80’s I started cutting timber. Once I got sawdust in my veins, I never could get it shook out. I ended up cutting timber, having my own timber company for 25 years.
I bought my first guitar a HD28V, Martin in 2005 at the age of 45. I had always loved country and Bluegrass music and wanted to play the guitar. In October of 2006 I was in a serious logging accident which ended my logging career.
I retrained as a Welder, working at Rolls-Royce Energy Systems. Then in 2012 a layoff came. It was during the two year layoff that I really began to focus on the music. On a trip to Tennessee, I stopped at The Rt 23 Country Music Museum in Paintsville, KY. I fell in love with the people and music of East Kentucky. Each week on Thursday, I would drive the 250 miles one way, to the Country Music Museum just to jam with the many bluegrass musicians there. Then on Friday evening to ” The Mountain Arts Center ” in Prestonsburg, Ky. Where I would song at their Front Porch Pickin.
Do to the early influence of Country and Bluegrass, and Gospel you can definitely hear it in the songs I write. I only know how to write about the life that I have lived. True life experience songs brought about from experiences I have lived such as…life on a family farm, and child from divorced parents, having lost all I worked for due to an accident and divorce of my own, having been in three separate life threatening accidents, and the loss of a woman who I loved more than life itself.
I tell most everyone this, “What is the difference between singing a lie, and telling a lie? Nothin’! A lie is a lie! So I can only write songs from the true life experiences of my life, or the life of others.”
So if you like simple Country, Folk, Bluegrass, Gospel, Americana with a bit of Celtic influence… then my music is for you.
Thank you for your time and reading this. I hope you enjoy listening to my stories and songs. God bless you all.
Sincerely,
Chuck Williams
If you want a little ‘something different’ in your music library., I have the CD for you. I spent the last few days listening to Chuck Williams, “Middle of the Road”. This is definitely not what you are hearing on country radio today. It is, however, about the best mix of country, bluegrass, folk, and Americana that we’ve heard in a very long time. Chuck is without a doubt a storyteller. His stories make you think that someone has actually lived that. Read the full review of my album at CountrysChatter.com