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Bryan Wilson |
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| 2007-11-28 | ||
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At an age when most young artists are making their initial splash on the music industry, child gospel star Bryan Wilson is actually making a comeback. In 1994, the then-12 year old’s soulful, melismatic rendition of “His Eye on the Sparrow” with the Mississippi Children’s Choir made him an overnight gospel sensation. What followed was Dove and Stellar award nominations, two solo CDS and tours with a who’s who of gospel artists such as John P. Kee, Albertina Walker and Wilson’s mentor, the late James Moore. After a voice change and time off for college at Princeton University, Wilson is now ready for A Second Coming. A Second Coming is Wilson’s first CD release since 1999 and it’s a departure. Wilson’s childhood music was traditional, old school gospel. “I had no choice in what I sang.” he laughs. “They basically handed me some songs and said do you like this one or that one?” So, not only is the new project an exciting blend of faith and urban rhythms; but it’s the first time Wilson had a hand in writing, co-producing and arranging all of the songs. “My manager had asked some known songwriters to submit songs for the project and nothing came through,” Wilson recalls. “So, I just started writing what the Lord placed on my heart and this is the result.” Wilson was born on November 3, 1981 in Danville, IL. He’s the middle child of his mother Sheila’s three sons. She and her family sang in a family gospel group called the Davis Singers. Wilson was only about six when he first began singing with them. “My grandfather was the major influence in my life up to that time,” Wilson says. “He told me to keep on singing and to carry on the family tradition. The first time I ever sang a solo was at my grandfather’s funeral. It was kind of ironic that it was he who started me singing, and that my solo happened to be at his funeral. ” Aside, from his family, Wilson grew up studying the vocal licks of the Anointed Pace Sisters and the Clark Sisters. “I used to sing to the grass,” Wilson recalls. “I’d be out in the yard playing and pretending that each blade of grass was a member of my audience.” His next door neighbor Carol Parker often over heard him singing and thought that he was good. She sent a tape of him singing “His Eye is on the Sparrow” to Jerry Mannery at Malaco Records. He liked it and featured Wilson’s rendition on a Mississippi Children’s Choir project with the same arrangement that Sheila had taught him. Wilson’s high notes and vocal gymnastics sealed the song’s fate and essentially sold the CD, A New Creation. The album reached #39 on Billboard’s gospel chart and has since sold over 100,000 units. Soon gospel announcers had nicknamed Wilson the “Boy Sparrow.” Wilson’s instant success led Malaco Records to offer him his own recording deal. Among the heavy-hitter producers crafting Bryan’s debut were gospel legend Walter Hawkins and John P. Kee. Sticking with a dramatic hymn as the radio single, “Blessed Assurance,” took the cd Bryan’s Songs to #21 on Billboard’s gospel chart in 1996. His 1999 “Growing Up” CD was half traditional and half contemporary. A good, solid album, Malaco Records did not promote the album aggressively as they needed to. The three-year gap between releases necessitated a reintroduction to gospel radio that Bryan did not get. In the meantime, Wilson suffered through puberty and a voice change that depressed him. “I can remember times when my voice was changing, I would go places to sing and they would want me to sing `His Eyes on the Sparrow,’ but I just could not hit the notes,” Wilson says. “A lot of the times crowds were very displeased because they wanted to hear the little boy with the high voice. I went through a period almost where I couldn’t sing, and it was depressing, because I felt like, now God, you blessed me with this voice and you blessed me to do all these things, but now I feel like He was just taking it away from me. Then, there came a time when I didn’t even want to sing. I was just real hurt, I felt like my career was just coming to an end. I began to think about Tevin Campbell, whom people had always compared me to – I wondered if he went through the same thing. I had to re-train my voice and learn how to sing all over again.” After high school, Wilson moved to Orangeburg, South Carolina to stay with his surrogate father, Shane Wall, and to attend Claflin University. After graduating with a B.A. in theology, he spent a year working towards a master’s of divinity degree from Princeton University. Although, he continued to sing at Wall’s Feast of the Lord Church, he was no longer focused on having a music career. He planned to become a counselor and eventually, a church pastor. Then, a friend, Bil Carpenter, asked him to perform two songs on the Uncloudy Days book soundtrack CD. One of the songs was the autobiographical “Still, My Father” which Wilson wrote with a couple of friends who also had absentee fathers. He didn’t officially meet his biological father until he was ten. “Before then, he came around every few months or so to speak to my mother, but no one ever said that’s your father,” Wilson recalls. His father was young and caught up in wine and women and didn’t give much thought to what his absence was doing to his son. “God taught me to forgive my father,” Wilson says. “And that’s where that song comes from. My father and I have now reconciled and become much closer.” When it was released to radio in the fall of 2005, a lot of gospel radio stations refused to play it. “They said the song put black fathers in a bad light and they weren’t going to put that message out,” Wilson explains. However, the few stations that did play it, made it a hit in their market. It was #1 on Miami’s WMBM for 4 weeks and hit the Top Ten at gospel stations in a half dozen other cities. After the moderate success of the single, Wilson began to desire to record again. Carpenter, who had become his manager, suggested they record and release the CD on their own CE Music /Bryan’s Songs Records label. Since Wilson had never been paid royalties on his prior hit recordings, Carpenter reasoned that there was no reason to give away another CD. So, they financed the project themselves and brought in Wilson’s childhood friend, Kris “Doc Sizzle” Bell, to produce it. Drawing from his own life experiences and faith, Wilson wrote or co-wrote ten poignant songs covering everything from a soured romance on “Smile” to a bad day at work on “Just Do Something.” Recorded in his hometown of Danville, family and close friends showed up to work on the project, which has a smooth, contemporary feel without the slickness of some pop music. “It has a really raw sound,” Wilson says. “The way the vocals are mixed is especially raw, but I like it. It’s a little different but I think people will like it. However, all technical music aside, my main mission for these songs is to encourage and save souls for Christ. The title of the CD talks about my second coming as an artist; but the bigger picture is these songs lead us to a discussion of the second coming of Jesus Christ.” DISCOGRAPHY “A Second Coming” (CE Music/Bryan’s Songs Recordings 2008) “Growing Up” (Malaco Records 1999) “Bryan’s Songs” (Malaco Records 1996) CD GUEST APPEARANCES “The Savior Has Come,” Love’s Holiday: A Gospel Christmas (Time-Life/Sony BMG 2007) Various Artists such as Alicia Keys and Luther Vandross “Still, My Father,” Stellar Awards Hits 2007 (Light Records 2007) “Uncloudy Day,” Uncloudy Days (Artemis Gospel 2005) “It Was You,” Contemporary Gospel Volume 2 (St. Clair 2000) “It Ain’t Over Till (God Says It’s Over)” (Malaco 1997) “Yahweh,” Live at Jackson State University (Malaco 1995) “His Eye is on the Sparrow” and “Inside Out,” A New Creation (Malaco 1994) CITATIONS/AWARD NOMINATIONS Dove Award Nomination for “Blessed Assurance” NATIONAL TELEVISION APPEARANCES |
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