Bonnyvill
Abernathy, Texas, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | SELF
Music
Press
Article by Phil Houseal, Fredericksburg, TX - Fredericksburg (Texas) Standard
Article by Phil Houseal, Fredericksburg, TX - Fredericksburg (Texas) Standard
Bob Villa, husband of the former Penny Daniel, a Lenoir City native, has just released a new single, Good Enough For Nashville Star, for radio and internet play. The song is a funny, tongue-in-cheek account of Villa’s experiences during the audition process for the Nashville Star TV show which airs Monday, June 9th , on NBC.
Though home-based out of Phoenix, AZ, Villa spends 3 to 4 months each year in Lenoir City and pursuing musical opportunities currently opening up to him in Nashville. Another of his newest songs, Buttermilk Road, pays homage to the local Bradbury community where Penny’s father grew up. It is slated to be included – along with “Nashville Star” – on Villa’s next CD project which should be released in late summer or fall of 2008.
Penny Villa is the daughter of Alda Rainwater Daniel of Lenoir City and the late J. B. (Bradbury) Daniel, who owned Daniel’s Barber Shop in downtown Lenoir City for many years. Penny is a 1976 graduate of Lenoir City High School and a former member of First Baptist Church.
Good Enough For Nashville Star is available on the Villa’s website, www.DesertManMusic.com. Copies are also being provided to all local area radio stations, including WLIL, WLNT, and WIVK. There is even a reference in the song to Knoxville. “It is our hope,” says Penny, “that our many friends and family in Lenoir City and around East Tennessee will light up the radio stations’ request lines asking to hear Good Enough For Nashville Star by Bob Villa (pronounced ‘vee-ah’.)”
- Loudon County (Tennessee) News-Herald
By Mihio Manus
GRIN Managing Editor
February 2008
When asked about how the road has treated him, Pima singer/songwriter, Bob Villa
paraphrases a Dan Fogelberg lyric, “The audiences are heavenly but the traveling is hell.”
Within the last 18 months, Villa and his wife Penny have been from New Mexico throughout the Texas Hill Country and back again. He’s been booked in lounges, bars and restaurants, both reputable and obscure. Some days the gigs were well worth the effort and other days the tip jar was barely enough for gas money. However, according to the road worn musician, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It was great, man,” he said. “We were really embraced even though we’re from out of state and not Hill Country musicians. We made great friends there and great music.”
The 47-year-old Villa is the son of Roberta Johns and hails from the Blackwater area of the Community. He’s been in and out of bands since he was a teenager and has become well adept enough to handle most any instrument. With influences ranging from classic rock and country to cumbia and blues, Villa’s roots in songwriting extend across many genres and boundaries.
The summer of 2006 found Villa with a regular gig at Wendell’s Lounge, which is apart of the Inn of the Mountain Gods in Mescalero, N.M. During this time, he caught the attention of a restaurateur who invited Villa to play the opening of his new restaurant in San Antonio, TX. Jumping at the opportunity, Villa packed up his gear and told Penny they were on their way to Texas.
However, upon reaching the Lone Star State, they were told that the restaurant wouldn’t open until a month later. So the two sought out gigs to fill in the downtime.
Operating out of an ’85 motor coach parked in Fredericksburg, TX, the Villas roamed what is known as the Texas Hill Country, playing wherever they could find opportunity.
Villa’s wife Penny explains, “The music scene is great and the music community is very embracing. Fredericksburg is a tourist town so we did really well in the tip jar because of the
tourism. As far as paying venues in the Texas Hill Country, it’s too close to Austin and there are like 1500 guitar players in Austin willing to play for free just to be heard. Austin is known as the live music capital of the world.”
At one venue called Silver Creek, which became a favorite place for Bob to play in Fredericksburg, he broke the tip record twice. First he set the tip record, then a couple weeks later broke his own record.
Around the Valley, Villa can expect to get $50 an hour on a weekend night and slightly less on a weeknight. But in Texas, the rates came a little cheaper and it wasn’t unusual for him to play three hours for $50. This is where the tip jar is a critical asset.
Life in a motor coach can be riddled with challenges. One night the couple came home to be
greeted with water running out from under the door. The carpet of the coach was soaked beneath two inches of water because the icemaker had sprung a leak.
“That’s been the downside of the road. Mechanical problems,” Penny said.
“We counted four times we had to have it towed. Finally this last time, on our way to Oklahoma, we just left it just south of Mineral Wells, TX,” Bob said. “It required some major engine overhaul.”
The logistics of it is that there have been more than there share of difficulties but the people they’ve met, as well as the audiences and venues have proved to be very inspirational to the musician. He’s done plenty of songwriting while out on the road, some based on the experiences they’ve encountered.
“It’s been good, a real good experience. I’ve joined the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) and that’s been good because we’ve been able to get some good contacts through them. In Nashville, we were able to do a couple of writer’s showcases. We played at the Blue Bird Café which is famous for launching Garth Brooks and others on their way up,” he said.
His wife adds that the Blue Bird Café hosts the most prestigious open mic in the world and that Bob played a showcase there by invitation only.
At the Blue Bird, he played an original song called “Already Home” that he had written for Penny back before the two were married. It’s a song about being on the road with a band and how he wanted nothing more than to be back by her side. The song went over with great success and afterward a publisher approached the couple and gave them his number telling him that he thinks the song would be good for Kenny Chesney.
Another song, “Big Moon”, caught the attention of Steve Bloch with Writer Zone Music Publishing. Every March, Block comes out to Arizona and listens to songwriters. If he likes something, he takes it back to pitch to recording artists.
Last March, he heard Villa’s “Big Moon” and liked it. Out of 31 songs, he chose six and Villa’s was one of them. He told Villa that he could hear Ronnie Dunn singing the c - Gila River Indian News
Bob Villa is one of Arizona’s finest………a talented guy and a superb entertainer………his recent guest appearance on KKNT 960 Radio’s “Arizona Music Café” was a treat for our listeners and a real pleasure! We hope to have him back soon!
- AZ Music Café website
Discography
Cursed Tree, Independent LP, 2004
Old Black and White, Independent LP, 2005
Good Enough for Nashville Star, Independent Single, 2008
Photos
Bio
Personal Histories
A Native American and native Arizonan, Bob was born on the Gila River Indian reservation southeast of Phoenix, where he began playing guitar at the age of 10. His over 40 years of experience playing guitar is evidenced by his eclectic styles and ease with the
instrument. He attended American Indian College in Phoenix, pursuing a degree in Christian Ministry, and Grand Canyon University also in Phoenix, studying Music Education and receiving formal voice training. Penny was born in East Tennessee and spent much of her life in Indiana, where she sang in school and church choirs and ensembles, learned piano, and performed in stage productions.
Bonnyvill History
Bonnyvill has performed on a regular basis in restaurants, wine rooms, bars, and casinos around the Phoenix area and elsewhere across Arizona. Listeners enjoy their smooth performances on cover tunes, but especially Bob's original music, much of which is influenced by his Southwestern and Native American roots. Bob released 2 CD's during the winter of 2004/2005 containing, with the exception of one song, all original music. He made 4 appearances on Good Morning Arizona, a Phoenix morning news show. Bob won The Proof Is In The Pudding solo artist competition at Alice Cooperstown in Phoenix in 2005. He went on to perform at Alice Cooper's Christmas show held at the Dodge Theater along with Alice himself, STYX, Don Felder of the Eagles, and many other world-class musicians. In 2008 Bob received a callback at the National audition level for the Nashville Star TV show. Though he was not ultimately chosen for the show, he wrote a funny, tongue-in-cheek song about his audition experiences. That single enjoyed airplay on over 30 radio stations in 12 states, including Internet radio. The duo has traveled and performed extensively in New Mexico, where they enjoyed a 4-month run at Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino in Mescalero; the Texas Hill Country, where they've spent so much time they're considered "locals" around Fredericksburg and Luckenbach; and Tennessee, where they frequently play songwriter showcases in Nashville. In 2012 they relocated to Lubbock, TX, where they were quickly embraced by local area musicians. Bonnyvill soon became a vital part of the busy and eclectic Lubbock music scene.
Musical Repertoire & Influences
Bonnyvill performs an eclectic and constantly growing repertoire which includes pop jazz standards like Sinatra's Fly Me To The Moon and All Of Me and Nat King Cole's Mona Lisa and When I Fall In Love. They convincingly cover Jim Croce tunes Don't Mess Around With Jim, Time In A Bottle, etc., James Taylor hits like Fire and Rain and Handy Man, Elvis favorites such as Teddy Bear and Hound Dog, and a Beatles lineup that spans the early 60's to the mid 70's. Bob's influences include modern jazz guitarists Charlie Smith and George Benson; rock legends Eric Clapton and Neil Young, and bands Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Doobie Brothers; blues artists Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B. King; and Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Mac Powell, and Petra in the Christian music arena. Bob and Penny love country music (a love planted and fostered by his mother and her father) and express that love by passionately covering classics by Charley Pride, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, etc., as well as more modern tunes by Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, Blake Shelton, and others.
Band Members
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