Bill was born in Chillicothe, Ohio because that's where his
mother was at the time. He was quite young at the time and
his memory of the occasion is rather sketchy. Some time
later his father traded a shotgun for at guitar and Bill's
path to stardom began. Unfortunately the family was living
in the Appalachian Mountains and the path tended to be
rather rocky, steep, and crooked. There were several
detours and dead ends while he had to bale hay, fix fence
and chase cows. (It wasn't open range but he wasn't very
good at fixing the fences.)
In addition to the guitar, Bill plays trumpet, sax, flute,
fiddle, banjo, and fluglehorn. Bill married his piano
player Sandie in 1966. He worked one year as a High School
Band Director before hitting the road as "The Smallwoods"
playing hotel lounges as a duo. They signed on with a
Nashville agent and toured all over the United States and
Canada. The band grew to 5 pieces and they were having a
great time, but Clyde (the Nashville agent) kept booking
them into places like Devils Lake, North Dakota in the
winter time so they finally decided to narrow their
territory to Texas. They still like to travel and are quite
willing to play just about anywhere the temperature stays
"reasonable".
The Full House article link, takes you offsite, to Phil
Houseal's website. He wrote an excellent article about Bill
and his formation of his big band, the Lone Star Swing
Orchestra.