Who’s walking down the side streets of Tremont, smiling at everybody he sees? Who’s reaching out to capture a moment? Everyone knows, it's Billy! Billy Clarksville, that is. If Tremont had a mayor, it would be him. Everyone loves Billy so much in that isolated pocket of the near West Side of Cleveland. Elsewhere, he is not as well known. But that should change soon.
So unless you are from Tremont, you may be wondering: who is this dude? Billy Clarksville may be his home town's best kept secret. Born in 1955 and raised in Tremont, William James Clarksville was a child of the streets and it was there that he got his education. He saw the hopelessness and desperation in the eyes of his neighbors and lived through the violence, infidelity and sexuality of Cleveland in the 1950's. These experiences helped Billy form a vision of urban living that eventually blossomed into the original songs that now make up his music catalogue
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The Bard of Tremont did not write his first songs until he was 29. At that time, his years of piano lessons and practicing finally paid off. Billy is quick to say he is no Van Cliburn on the piano-forte, but the public knows he is too modest. Actually, everyone who sees him play on the piano is knocked out by his talent. Similarly, Billy likes to give all the credit for inspiring his songs to his big influences, people like Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Mark Knofler, and Chris Rea. And echoes of the music of other songwriters can be heard in his own original songs. But beyond a hint of this or that, Billy's songs stand on their own as wonderful modern classics like "Wasting My Time" and "Bound" and “Cats and Dogs”.
Billy Clarksville never followed the mainstream as he absorbed the fresh sounds of the 1960's. While his friends were raving about the Beatles, Billy was studying the Monkees, the Four Tops, and even the Velvet Underground. He preferred songs with deep meanings and a harder edge. He would say, "You can only 'hold my hand' and 'love me do' on my terms. Take it or leave it!"
Now, after writing numerous great songs and playing in a variety of bands, Billy Clarksville is at his creative prime. He lives single and alone in Tremont, producing some of the most exciting popular music to ever come out of Cleveland. With his musical partners Rick Wager on bass and Peter Ball on synthesizers, he is producing such a high level of quality music that it is a reasonable assumption that he won't be living in Tremont much longer. Watch out, Hollywood! But you can still catch his shows with his live band, The Billy Clarksville Band, also know as the Sinsations, with Rick Sustersic on electronic drums, Donny Boston on guitar, Gordon Harman on saxophone, and Rick Wager on bass, who also is the producer and aranger of the Billy Clarksville Band. Billy often plays at the Literary Cafe, TreeHouse, Pats in the Flats, Beachland Tavern, Hotz Cafe, and the Barking Spider.
When Billy is not playing out at clubs, he can be found recording and experimenting in the studio with Peter Ball and the Apartment One project.
It is just a matter of time before Billy Clarksville breaks out, kisses Tremont goodbye, and hits the international tour circuit. Where will you catch him first? At an intimate club in Tremont on a weekend night? Or in a video on MTV? Or maybe as the musical guest on the Letterman show or Saturday Night Live?
Billy Clarksville has been working and playing and paying his musical dues for over twenty years- the perfect setup to be the next overnight sensation, the next flavor of the month, the next household name. But for now, he is still just Tremont's Billy. But when his moment happens, it will be like a lightning strike. And in an instant, he will be gone. Then Billy will belong to the world.
And then we will say about that friendly, smiling man: "We knew him when!"
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