User:Carpenterbill/Bryan Wilson

Young but veteran gospel artist Bryan Wilson has often been confused with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Excited reporters would call out of nowhere and start asking him about “Good Vibrations” or “I Get Around.” Once, a producer from MSNBC was on the phone with him for five minutes before he realized this was a different surfer dude. “I found it hilarious,” Wilson says. “Why would that Brian Wilson be in South Carolina where I was living at the time?”  While Brian Wilson is a legend in pop music, Bryan Wilson has been a star on the gospel circuit since he was a kid.

In 1994, Bryan burst on the gospel music scene with a soulful, melismatic rendition of “His Eye is on the Sparrow” with the Mississippi Children’s Choir that made him an overnight gospel sensation. T 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 Bryan’s mentor, the late James Moore.

Wilson was born November 3, 1983 in Danville, IL, the middle child of his mother Sheila Wilson’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 on 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 the Mississippi Children’s Choir with the same arrangement that his mom Sheila had taught him. Wilson’s high notes and vocal gymnastics sealed the song’s fate and sealed Wilson's standing as a prodigy. The CD, "A New Creation" 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, Kirk Franklin 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 mandated 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 on his website. “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 until a friend Bill Carpenter persuaded him to get back in the business.

Since Wilson had never been paid royalties on his prior hit recordings at Malaco Records, Carpenter reasoned that there was no reason to give away another CD. So, they financed the project themselves and decided to release it through their own joint label, Bryan’s Songs Records/CE Music with distribution through Central South Distribution in Nashville.

Wilson’s childhood music tastes were 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 well-known gospel composers such as Jonathan Nelson and V. Michael McKay 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.”

They brought in Wilson’s childhood friend, Kris “Doc Sizzle” Bell, to produce it. Drawing from his own life experiences, Wilson wrote or co-wrote poignant songs covering everything from a soured romance on “Smile” or his absentee dad on “Still, My Father” 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 urban 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.” That project received mixed reviews. Billboard magazine hailed as "a confident musical calling card" while the Dallas Morning News critic wrote: "It's a nice effort, but much of the CD sounds like what it is - a former star trying to reinvent himself. Too bad that Bryan Wilson's second coming is not the one we're lookking for."

BRYAN WILSON DISCOGRAPHY Shouting Down the Aisle (Time Life Music 2009) A Second Coming (CE Music/Bryan’s Songs Records 2008) Love's Holiday: A Gospel Christmas (Time Life Music 2007) Uncloudy Days (Artemis Gospel 2005) Growing Up (Malaco Records 1999) Bryan’s Songs (Malaco Records 1996) A New Creation (Malaco Records 1994)

CITATIONS/AWARD NOMINATIONS Dove and Stellar Award Nominations for “Blessed Assurance” (1996) Bryan Wilson Day in Akron, Ohio (1997)

NATIONAL TELEVISION APPEARANCES “Next Generation,” Gospel Music Channel (GMC –2008) “Video Gospel,” Black Entertainment Television (BET – 2008) “Love’s Holiday,” Black Entertainment Television Jazz (BETJ -2007). “Praise the Lord,” Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN -2006). “The Gospel of Music with Jeffmajors” (TV One -2005). “Bobby Jones Gospel,” Black Entertainment Television (BET -1996). “Say Yes with Candi Staton,” Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN -2000). “Babbie’s Place,” Daystar Network (DSTN-2000). “I Gospel,” The Inspirational Network (INSP –2005/2006). “Stellar Awards” (syndicated-1995)

REFERENCE ARTICLES Jet Magazine April 3, 2006 Dallas Morning News "A Second Coming" (March 29, 2008) The Danville News-Gazette "Coming Home" (January 19, 2008) Pittsburgh Post Dispatch "The Bryan Wilson of Soul is on His Way" (March 20, 2008) The Herald Sun "Gospel Singer Making His Second Coming" (October 18, 2008) The Toledo Blade "One-Time Child Star Returns to the Gospel Spotlight" (July 10, 2008) Billboard "Bryan Wilson" (January 19, 2008)