[ W I L L I A M  J A M E S  IV ]

William was born in the suburbs of New York City in the fall of 1951. He was a child of the 50's and 60's, who grew up in the era of Korea, Rock N Roll, Vietnam and Woodstock. His first musical adventure was playing Cornet in the school band in the 4th grade, but it wasn't until he was 13....and a friend brought back a warping, cheap guitar from his dad's sugar plantation in Nicaragua....that he began to focus on the guitar. That was also about the same time he got into folk singer Robert Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan, who just happened to be revolutionizing the New York folk scene about the same time. Like many writers, James formed and disintegrated many bands over the years, while traveling to France, Italy and Ireland along the way.....not to mention most all of North America in his 1973 International Travelall....which happened to be his first new car. The one that would take him on "The Road To The Sun" for the first time. He obtained a business degree along the way, which didn't help him career-wise. He became so frustrated at the time, because no one wanted to see his resume, that he became depressed and sought refuge in alcohol for a brief period. He later decided to go to law school and in the early 80's settled on the coastal plains of Texas to do just that. Fortunately, the music bug did not let go, and James, after nearly a decade without an album, recorded his first CD, Young Whores and Old Hippies, which was warmly received by the critics and his still a sought after recording to this days. In 1990 James met musician Jeff DeVillez and a collaboration began in the recording studio that endures to this day. They have now worked together on about 7 of his CDs. The "Love is the Power" CD features DeVillez as co-producer, writer and performer. James has recorded 11 CDs in 6 years, each one comprised of songs that are stories documenting his life and times. He is in the country, blues, folk-style cowboy, lawyer, wild man, romancer and traveller, and he has blazed a musical, social and political path across the 90's Texas landscape. Having, on more than one occasion, run ins with the law and powers that be. He always tended to want to have fun and, unfortunately, that fun attracted more fun seekers, who, in turn, attracted the authorities with noise and accusations. Yet, James continues to asses and analyze, to ponder and hypothesize, to reflect the world he sees and interprets through the window of his own unique viewpoint. Once again, with "Love is the Power", James reinvents what the critics thought they were sure of and comes out of the studio with a fresh new sound, his way of showing us that everything old is new again!!
"Eleven albums, eleven reviewsm and I'm running out of ideas on how to sell the concept of William James IV. Even if I could offer soundclips, it really wouldn't help because he doesn't offer much in the way of quick grabbers, you have to listen to an entire album, even the entire canon, to understand, or at least get an inkling of, what this is all about. Put at it simplest, James' albums are the sountrack to his ongoing psychodrama, which, of course, is not in itself much of a recommendation, but his ferocious intelligence, riveting command of language, from literary allusion to scatological insult, sardonic humor, utter disregard for political corretness and brutal honesty enable him to turn just about anything into powerful poetry. He is, I guess, a folk singer, but if you start at folk's gooey soft center, Peter, Paul & Mary say, and go right to the far outer edge of the hard, brittle crust, that's where you'll find him. It isn't a comfortable place, for some people it would be downright offensive. With the latest version of the Borderline Personality Disorder Band, Chris Cage guitars, accordion, piano and B3, Darcie Deaville fiddle, mandolin and vocals, Dave Heath bass, Johnny Benoit drums, plus Marvin Dykhuis guitars, The East Side Flash dobro and Joseph Colarusso flute and saxes, this is the first of James' albums to be actually produced, by fellow Corpus Christi musician Jeff DeVillez". John Conquest - 3rd Coast Music magazine