Billy Ray Reynolds

As a young boy from the South, Billy Ray Reynolds first love of music was reinforced by a fifty mile trip to Jackson, Mississippi with his family to see a traveling Grand Ole Opry show, featuring the legendary country music superstars, Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Bill Monroe with Flatt and Scruggs, Rod Brasfield, Lou Childress, and especially the famous Hank Williams Sr. Inspired by this event at an early age and a Martin guitar handed down by an uncle, Billy Ray began writing songs on his own while growing up and working on his father’s family farm.Determined to make his way to Nashville, Tennessee, Billy Ray spent his youth in Mississippi, gathering songwriting material through experiences and observations. After leaving home at an early age, he became a heavy equipment operator and worked throughout the South at this occupation. During this period, music was never far from his mind and when he could find the time, he began playing various honky-tonks, nightclubs and any event he could find, which further encouraged his desire to commit to music full time.It was during these years that he met the man who would become quite instrumental in his musical and songwriting career, as well as a lifelong friend, Waylon Jennings. Waylon listened to several of his songs and recommended an appointment with a music publisher in Nashville. Although, this initial appointment did not prove successful, while still in Music City, Billy Ray met and was signed as a staff writer by steel guitarist, Pete Drake at his Window Music Company on this same journey.Billy Ray continued to keep busy writing songs and now with a publisher to place them in hands of artists looking for songs to record, he had the first of many songs recorded that year by producer Scotty Turner at United Artist records. This song, “I Sure Learned A Lot From You,” was masterfully sung by country music legend, Slim Whitman. After a short stint as an artist on Epic Records with producer Glenn Sutton, Billy Ray took on another role as front man and rhythm guitarist for Waylon, while singing harmony in Waylon’s traveling road band. During the several years he spent touring and playing in Waylon’s band, he began playing guitar on Waylon’s recordings, and is heard playing on quite a few of Waylon’s early number one records such as, “This Time,” and, “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way”, etc. At the same time during this period, he was having quite a bit of songwriting success with other artists. Not only was Jennings recording his songs, but so were Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, John Conlee, Johnny Rodriguez, Tanya Tucker, and others. Billy Ray has received several awards for his achievements both as a music writer, including several BMI and ASCAP awards, and as a session guitarist on Waylon and Willie Nelson’s recording of “Good Hearted Woman,” as a “Super Picker” award by NARAS.Billy Ray has continued to have success with his songs being recorded by many other artists including, Allison Krause and Union Station, Eddie Arnold, Tompall Glazer, Debbie Boone, etc. Billy Ray also spent quite some time touring with The Allman Brothers Band, writing songs with the southern rock legend guitarist, Dickey Betts. He also wrote the song, “Atlanta’s Burning Down”, which became the title song for the Dickey Betts solo album, and was also recorded by Waylon for RCA Records.While always searching for new creative challenges, Billy Ray began another career as an actor. He has appeared as a character actor in many television shows such as, “In the Heat of the Night” and “Unsolved Mysteries”. He has also had numerous movie bit parts ranging from made-for-television movies and HBO productions, to blockbuster hits such as Francis Ford Coppolla’s “The Rainmaker”. Billy Ray served as president of the Nashville branch of the Screen Actors Guild for a time and was a long time member on the board of directors of AFTRA.He has enjoyed the pleasure of working with such actors and directors as John Duigan, Christopher Reeves, John Travolta, Jason Patrick, Sylvester Stallone, Carol O’Connor, Thandie Newton, Matt Damon, Jason Robards, Shawn Cassidy, Katheryn Hellmon, Michael Learned, Levar Burton, Lou Gossett Jr., John Travolta, etc.Billy Ray also found time for his passion for Civil War history, both writing and recording an album of music about the period between 1861 and 1865, entitled, “Privates To The Front.” Spending many years as a Civil War re-enactor, where he camped and slept on the actual battlefields where original battles took place, he searched for anything and everything he could learn about the Civil War.These searches and time spent on the battlefields have earned him a reputation as a Civil War historian, and at one time was a leader responsible for gathering and collecting through research, the scattered and stolen pieces of the uniform and weapons of the proud, fallen, southern General Patrick Cleburne. General Cleburne’s body was relieved of his clothing and accoutrements by southern soldiers destitute for anything to stay warm after he was killed at the bloody battle of Franklin, Tennessee.Billy Ray has spent decades in Nashville and the heart of the country music business, touring and playing shows and events with the likes of Roy Acuff and the Smokey Mountain Boys, Billy Grammer, Margie Bowes, Carl and Pearl Butler, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and many others. Kris Kristofferson was quoted once as having described Billy Ray as, “the forgotten outlaw.”Billy Ray most recently released an album called, “Whole Lot of Memories,” described pretty much as “hardcore country/southern rock, with a touch of the blues”. Several of the guests on this album include, Merle Haggard, Bonnie Bramlett, Jonnell Mosser, and Jim Hurt. Country Music Magazine noted, “Billy Ray’s deep voice and pen balances rough honesty with sincere sentimentality.”Over the years Billy Ray has also written many southern spiritual songs and has now added another side to his continuing career as an artist with an album of self-written original spiritual material entitled, ”Follow The Son.”