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David Williams grew
up in upper East Tennessee. Known as the "Birthplace of Country Music",
Bristol is located right on the state line between Virginia and Tennessee,
one side of the town’s main street know as “State Street”,
is in Virginia, and the other side of the street is in Tennessee. Bristol
is known as the "Birthplace" due to recording sessions that
took place there in 1927 with RCA engineer Ralph Peer recording The Carter
Family and Jimmy Rogers. Those sessions came to be known as "The
Big Bang" of popular music. Feeding off of the musical diversity
in the area, Dave picked up music at the age of 11 learning to play bluegrass
and acoustic music on the guitar. He began to work hard at perfecting
various rhythms and musical styles on guitar and singing.
After high school, David attended Bristol College in his home town majoring in Computer Engineering and landed a job in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia working for a N.A.S.A. sub-contractor as a prototype engineer and model maker. This job entailed working closely with N.A.S.A. engineers at the leading edge of aerospace technology developing and fabricating prototypes for testing at the wind tunnel facility at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton Virginia. During this time David was playing music in night clubs from Richmond to Virginia Beach performing different styles and types of acoustic music and began writing his own songs. With massive layoffs at N.A.S.A., David took the opportunity to go to Nashville to see if he could find work or learn more about the music industry. As luck would have it, one of the first people he befriended in Nashville was Tommy Jennings (Waylon’s brother). That started a friendship that lasts to this day. Tommy and Waylon were responsible for getting him into the music business, first by making some calls and telling a few industry people about the “kid” he had just found, which wound up getting him road gigs, then hiring him to play on studio recording sessions. Tommy also hired Dave as his guitar player, backup vocalist, and general sidekick. Dave worked on the road for several years playing with different artists as a guitar player, bass player, percussionist, and harmony vocalist, all over North America including Canada and Mexico. When he was not touring, he was in the studio recording. Dave and I met up when I was CEO with Echo-Summit Records on Music Row in Nashville. We became instant, life-long friends. I offered him a job at Echo-Summit Publishing and that began his insatiable hunger for understanding the music industry and what makes it tick. During his stint with Echo-Summit, he advanced from an intern to Senior Vice President in less than a year and learned to engineer recording sessions and was soon working as an engineer and producer, and co-producer at several other upper-class audio and video studios and production facilities in Nashville as well as teaching song writing classes. There soon came a time when he got the insight and desire to strike out on his own and launched Willow Creek Music on Music Row in Nashville. Willow Creek was a publishing and production company and he wound up producing audio recordings for various individuals and working as engineer, producer, writer, and director for audio, instructional video and even some feature film. Dave also produced an instructional video of the studio charting system used in Nashville called, ”The Number System”. Conceived by his cousin Van Vinson, it is still one of the only videos of its kind on this subject and Dave owns the copyright. Willow Creek helped Dave to hone his skills as an engineer, producer, writer, promoter, publisher, and agent in the music industry and developed his unique insight in all things musical. During this time he also started working in the field of “live” performance as an engineer and or production manager. This involved doing freelance and union sound and production for major concerts in venues in the southeast. A list of some of the artists Dave has worked with as
Front of House Engineer, Monitor Mixer, Recording Engineer,
Producer, Player, or in a production assistance capacity are, as follows:
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| Bill Monroe Ralph Stanley Pete Seager The VW Boys Appalachian Trail Uncle Josh Graves and Kenny Baker The Roan Mtn. Hilltoppers Little Jimmy Dickens Doc Watson John Hartford Sam Bush Bella Fleck and the Flecktones Peter Rowan Edgar Meyer Hoyt Axton Kevin Welch Eddie Rabbit Doc Holiday John Murray Dan Seals Vern Gosdin Rodney Crowell Kerry Marx Richard Marx Deana Carter TG Shepard Mickey Gilley Kris Kristofferson Roseanne Carter Shania Twain Little Texas Lori Morgan Glen Campbell Billy Dean Johnny Rivers Bobby Bee and the Nashville Sounds Holly Dunn H.B Beverly & 3/4 Time Emmylou Harris Tommy Jennings Tracy Lawrence Waylon Jennings Junior Brown Goose Creek Symphony Willie Nelson Grant Boatright Farm Aid Steve Earle Loretta Lynn |
Del McCoury Darrell Scott Jim Lauderdale Donna The Buffalo the WIYOs barefoot manner Mac Wiseman The Carter Fold Tony Rice Wyatt Rice Tony Trishka Vassar Clements The Seldom Scene Mike Cross Blue Highway Ed Snodderly & Brandon Story David Via & Corn Tornado w/Curtis Burch Beth and April Stevens Fescue Red Stick Ramblers Alison Krauss Acoustic Syndicate Malcolm Holcombe John Prine Snake Oil Medicine Show Old Crow Medicine Show Steep Canyon Rangers Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike Jerry Lee Lewis Chet Atkins The Walker Sisters Bruce Channell Merle Haggard Neil McCoy Jo Dee Messina Faith Hill The Temptations The Drifters The Spinners The Tams The Del-Rays Kenny Malone David Loving Jerry Lee Lewis Chet Atkins The Walker Sisters Bruce Channell |
Charlie Daniels The Allman Brothers The Outlaws Delbert McClinton Taj Mahal Etta James John Fogerty Ritchie Havens Molly Hatchet Foghat Hootie and the Blowfish Big Lick The Mighty Mighty Bostones Gov’t Mule The Marshall Tucker Band The Amazing Rhythm Aces Ziggy Marley The Dave Mathews Band Edwin McCain Charmaine Neville and the Neville Brothers Billy Crawford T-Bone Walker John Lee Hooker Albert Lee Buddy Guy Robert Cray Chicago Gordon Lightfoot 38 Special Jefferson Starship Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Aerosmith Neil Young Kenny Wayne Sheppard Bob Dylan TLC National Music Ensemble of India The Holiness Church of God Choir in Richmond Virginia with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and many more! |
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David sold Willow Creek Music and came back to East Tennessee in 1994 after being away from home for many years. He was missing seeing his brothers (two of them) grow up and had not spent time with his family for several years. Intending to take what would be an extended vacation from the business to spend time in the area with family and friends, Dave met up with the owner of a sound company while promoting a Vassar Clemments show at the Paramount Theater in Bristol and began doing freelance work as an audio engineer and stage manager in the area around East Tennessee and stage hand work for the IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees). With long time friend Gary Watkins, Dave joined up with Digi-Tone Records in 1997 and helped design, build, and launch a world-class recording studio, publishing company, and record label. After engineering and producing the first three projects for the label, Dave left Digi-Tone in the summer of 2000 and went on to manage Nashville songwriter Constant Change (Dawn Thomas), again with friend Gary Watkins. The two paired up to help land a cut for thier client on Faith Hill's "Breath" CD and negotiated the six figure sale of the McSpadden-Smith/Constant Change catalog of songs to a New York Publisher! Dave is now owner of Sound Check Music in Bristol, VA. A music store and live sound production company. |
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Dave’s unique outlook and understanding of this complicated machine known as the entertainment industry has helped him to enjoy respect and success in many areas of the entertainment business.
Bobby Ross |