User:Gospelhistorian

Bil Carpenter (born William Carpenter on October 14, 1965 in Fayetteville, NC) is one of the leading modern literary voices on soul and gospel music. He's written extensively on music in periodicals as diverse as People magazine and Living Blues magazine. Carpenter's knowledge of music harks back to his childhood where he spent countless hours listening to music. He loved everything from the Pink Floyd he heard at school, his father’s doo wop collection, his mother’s Gladys Knight 45s, to his neighbor’s Donny & Marie Osmond albums. Carpenter spent his last two high school years at the Duke Ellington School for the Arts in Washington, D.C. where he had master classes taught by Ossie Davis, Eartha Kitt and Lena Horne among others. He moved on to the American University in Washington, D.C. While in college, he spent a summer abroad at the University of Bourgogne in France and held an internship at the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) where he worked on the press staff for the premier of Oliver Stone’s CBS TV drama series "Tour of Duty" in 1987.

After graduating from college with a B.A. in history and a minor in French in 1991, Carpenter joined Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. As the inaugural festivities approached, Carpenter was assigned to solicit press opportunities for a variety of celebrities including Little Richard, Tony Bennett, Quincy Jones and Judy Collins. Following that great adventure, Bill served as the senior press secretary for Coretta Scott King's 30th anniversary March on Washington in 1993 and secured the participation of Halle Berry and Eartha Kitt. In 1994 Bill began to handle publicity for hip hop crooner Aaliyah’s first album "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number." Over the next couple of years, Bill handled publicity for a comedy club and spent six months doing PR for the touring play “Blues Bar” which starred Phyllis Hyman and Fifth Beatle Billy Preston.

During this period, Carpenter began freelance writing. He was a contributing writer to the Washington Post (1991-1993) and People magazine (1993-1997). He wrote dozens of stories for publications such as Goldmine and Living Blues. Within a three-year period, he wrote over 300 articles on performers such as Johnny Mathis, Joan Baez and Sisqo of Dru Hill. Carpenter was also a contributor to "The All Music Guide" (Miller-Freeman), a music reference book, now in its fourth printing. Around the same time, Carpenter co-founded Capital Entertainment (CE) which has done PR work for CeCe Winans, Smokie Norful, Vickie Winans, T.D. Jakes, attorney Johnnie Cochran and "Brady Bunch" mom Florence Henderson among others. He’s written liner note essays for Warner Brothers Records and Sony Music. He developed the concept and compiled Word Entertainment’s current All-Star Gospel CD series (Vol. #1 has spent over 40 weeks on the Billboard gospel chart and peaked at #7 on the survey). His songs have been recorded by Grammy nominees Pop Winans and Candi Staton. In Fall 2005, Backbeat Books published Carpenter’s first book, Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in 2007. Carpenter’s “Did You Know” trivia segments can also be heard weekly on “The BeBe Winans Radio Show” that is syndicated to over 100 radio stations throughout the USA. Carpenter’s latest venture is launching CE Music Records.