Career
Wally Wilson has worked with artists as diverse as Leon Russell, Bo Diddley, the Neville Brothers, Junior Wells, Amy Grant, Trisha Yearwood, Lone Star, Lorrie Morgan, Sammy Kershaw, Rick Trevino, Rascal Flatts and Patty Loveless, among others. Along with Kenny Greenberg, Wilson produced two records for Joan Baez in the 1990s, one, Play Me Backwards (1992) received a Grammy nomination. Baez credited Wilson and Greenberg for helping her to move towards a more mainstream style. In an interview, she said, "Wally's most famous remark was this: 'Ya know Joan, just because ya know how to write po'try don't mean ya know how to write a decent song.' I was livid. And I knew by how angry I was how close to the truth he probably was. They write in a very different way than I do…"
Wilson produced the hit country group Lonestar for BNA Records, at times co-producing with Don Cook. Wilson produced many other recordings in the 1990s, and created the female duo Regina Regina who were one of the "Top New Stars of 1997" according to Country America magazine. Wilson has written many hit songs recorded by country and blues artists, including Joe Cocker, Aaron Neville, Lonestar, Doug Stone, Linda Rondstadt, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Rascal Flatts, and many more. In the mid-1990s he was part of a team of songwriters at Sony/ATV Tree whom CEO Donna Hilley valued for having both songwriting and producing credentials. In 1996 MCA Music Nashville hired him as senior director of its new production company. Wilson is also a successful music publisher, and along with partners Paul Worley and Glen Morgan, own Skyline Music Publishing in Nashville, Tennessee.
Wilson began his career in Nashville working as a janitor at Tree Publishing Company, not unlike Kris Kristoferson years earlier. Wilson lives in Nashville and is still active in record production.
In 2010 Wilson and business partners Paul Worley and Glen Morgan expanded to form Skyville Records. An independent country label with Sony distribution. Under the agreement, Sony Music Nashville will offer manufacturing, sales and copyright administration. Under the creative direction of producer Paul Worley, Skyville finds, develops and produces the talent, as well as handles promotion, business development, legal affairs for its roster and works in conjunction with their radio promotion team led by industry veterans Kevin Herring and Paul Williams. Working with agents at CAA, including Rod Essig and Blake McDaniel, Wilson focuses Skyville's business model on putting it's independent acts out on the road while promoting new music.
In the Spring of 2012 Wilson will return to song-writing when he collaborates with artist and brother-in-law, Raul Malo, for his upcoming Mavericks reunion project.
Read more about this topic: Wally Wilson
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)
“I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)