William Hart Strecker
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Press
"William Hart Strecker apparently never heard the bittersweet old line, spread mostly by musicians, that by the time you’re old enough to understand songs, you’re not young enough to play them any more. Strecker is the exhilarating converse to this line. He’s old enough to be writing lovely songs like “Ancient Lullabye” and “Sweet Magnolia Time” while singing and playing them beautifully. They’re also smart songs, tempered by living and still leavened by dreams. They’re folk, rock and country, and they’re a welcome breeze for anyone who simply enjoys a good record."
David Hinckley
NY Daily News
William Hart Strecker’s All This Dreaming
Debuts Live at the Cutting Room, NYC
NEW YORK, April 14, 2004 – William Hart Strecker, singer, songwriter and best-kept secret in the music world, celebrates the release of his new CD, All This Dreaming, with a showcase performance by his fiercely talented band at The Cutting Room.
All This Dreaming heralds the arrival – once again – of a unique musician whose life is the stuff great songs are made of. William Hart Strecker embraced the whole dues-paying, starving artist, sell-your-soul, look-out-world-here-I-come, struggling musician’s life; rode it out to the edge of a breakthrough; and then turned his back on it, opting for family and a non-music career. A tipping point worthy of a biopic screenwriter – a life-threatening car crash – brought Bill back to the world of music. And those lucky enough to hear him sing and play at the Cutting Room will witness the full-on force of his return.
William Hart Strecker’s bandmates on All This Dreaming are some of the most sought-after musicians in the contemporary recording and touring universe. Drew Zingg (Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Michael McDonald, Lucy Kaplansky) plays guitar. Chris Eminizer (Janet Jackson, Paul Simon, Julia Darling) plays saxophone, guitar, keyboards, and shares writing credits with Bill. Ken Rich (Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Julia Darling) plays bass and produced the CD. Frank Vilardi (Rosanne Cash, Suzanne Vega, Rod Stewart) is on drums. And George Laks (Lenny Kravitz, Joan Osborne, Natalie Merchant) plays keyboards.
All This Dreaming was recorded at Long View Farm Studios in North Brookfield, Massachusetts. Produced by Ken Rich. Recorded and mixed by Pete Keppler.
© WHS Music 2004. William Hart Strecker is represented by RightSize Media (RightSizeMedia@aol.com) For more information: www.williamhartstrecker.com
"How unusual it is to come across the likes of William Hart Strecker! The man's songs speak to and from the heart. I have a saying; when music is that good the person making same has "the gift". I am not a religious person but when I hear Bill I am reminded there must be a God somewhere. Please listen to Bill, he will make your world better!"
Euphoria Productions
Rehearsal/Dat Recording
"The new album from WILLIAM HART STRECKER is by far one of my favorite records of this past year. It demonstrates solid craftsmanship from top to bottom, great musical talent and production as good as anything out there on the shelves. STRECKER’S voice is magical and like a great acoustic guitar has gained character and richness from the earlier days when I first heard him crooning the honkytonks of the Vermont Mountains. In a new era of “one hit wonders” and download expendables, WILLIAM has proven that an album with depth will remain timeless and always survive and that the merit of an artist is shown by what he delivers in each and every effort. After several revisits to this album I kept finding a new favorite track to latch on to, only to change my mind again the next time. This is rare for me and one of the reasons why this disc will remain close to my CD player for a long time to come. Share this music with a friend and watch it grow."
Dan Russo
Sanctuary Records Group
- assorted
Discography
Keep on loving 2001 Berger Platters Records
All This Dreaming 2004/05 itunes
William Hart Strecker has most recently been the voice of McDonalds "Lovin it" on National AAA Radio.
Photos
Bio
Sure, F. Scott Fitzgerald once famously said, There are no second acts in American lives. In grinning defiance of that notion, William invites you to discover his latest CD, All This Dreaming, a work informed by a love of life no matter how it is played out.
Strictly speaking, if youre keeping score, this is the third act of Bills life, the one in which an epiphany triggered by a near-death experience returns him to his earliest passion, music.
Turning to his vocal instrument, he began classical training as a youth and, by his teens, earning awards, including being named New York States best high school tenor. A full scholarship for voice brought him to Baylor University.
Bills 1972 band, New Hope (on Laurie Records, home of The Chiffons and Dion and the Belmonts) released a Strecker-penned single, Green Green Grass/Oh My Lady and embarked on a nationwide tour. Fame, however, remained beyond the bands grasp.
Bill continued to perform, sharing the stage with the likes of Tom Rush, Steve Goodman, and Richie Havens. He recorded in sessions with Noel Paul Stooky of Peter, Paul and Mary. Stooky turned legendary manager Albert Grossman (Bob Dylan, Joan Baez) on to Bill and he holed up near Woodstock to record under Grossmans aegis but the relationship dissolved. Bill performed with Pure Prairie League, Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen with Nicolette Larson, and the Dixie Diesels, an Austin, TX band fronted by Shawn Colvin.
By the mid-1980s the demands of raising a family and the rigors of the bar-gig life of a musician began to wear on him. And so, the curtain came down on the first act.
The plot turn that closes out this second stanza of William Hart Steckers life is the one that almost took his life. In October of 1998, returning in the evening from a meeting with a client, Bills car left the road and hit a tree. A long and painful regimen of physical therapy lay ahead.
It was during this arduous process that someone gave him a CD player and a couple of CDs to listen to during his therapy sessions. Inside the jewel case of one of them, BB Kings Deuces Wild, he spotted a photograph of some of the musicians on the album, including Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. And there alongside them was Tommy Eyre, the keyboardist from Bills old band. Not only did it bring tears to his eyes to see that after all those years his friend had persevered and built a successful career for himself, but it struck Bill as a sign. A sign that he was going to listen to the voice inside himself that had begun to tell him he had to give music one more try.
The curtain rises on his third act when you break the seal on All This Dreaming. Standing ovations are sure to follow...
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