It was while clowning a
rodeo in John Day, Oregon that Billy W. Chernoff entered a
talent show and placed second. He decided to pursue a career
in music and headed to Toronto, where he began playing in
clubs.
Owen, Glenda & Billy -
1968
Ben Keith & Billy, Music City
Recorders
Feeney, Chernoff & Harrison
At first Billy played in a
duo with Owen Murdoch on lead guitar and then teamed up with
Glenda Lee, who was with Canuck Records, to form the
"Glenda Lee Trio". Besides Toronto, they played in
nearby cities such as St.Catherines, Niagara Falls, Welland
and Crystal Beach in Ontario. After 6 months the group
disbanded and Billy went to work in the nickel "Inco"
mines (5,400 feet underground) in Sudbury to pay off band
equipment.
After half a year Billy went back to Toronto and walked into
Edison Hotel and met Andy Greatrix, bass player for Myrna
Lorrie at
the time, and later for Ronnie
Hawkins. Andy introduced Billy to Chef Adams, a booking
agent who offered a position and also got an evening gig at
the Robin Hood Inn in Pickering, Ontario for approximately 1
year doing a single act.
While booking for Adams at CBC in Toronto, Billy met Gary
Buck (Canadian
Country Male Singer of the Year, 1964-1966). Gary was an
artist-producer that arranged Billy's 1st recording session
in 1968 at RCA studios in Toronto for 2 songs which included No
Lonelier Than You, released on Spartan Records that
immediately made the Canadian national charts (#10 - RPM
Country Chart, 1969).
After the success of No
Lonelier Than You, Gary Buck set up a meeting with Neil
Merritt (Thank
God and Greyhound You're Gone - Roy Clark, and May The Bird
of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose - Little Jimmie Dickens) in
his Nashville home. Neil gave Billy a crash course in
songwriting. He said, "You don't write, you
paint." And as a result Billy wrote Susie's
Better Half and When
You Were A Lady.
Neil arranged the recording session of 4 of Billy's songs at
Music City Recorders, which was engineered by Scotty
Moore (lead
guitar for Elvis Presley). The steel guitar player was Ben
Keithwho later joined Neil
Young. Charlie
McCoy played
bass harmonica on Susie's
Better Half andD.J.
Fontanna played
drums ( for Elvis Presley as well).
Billy returned to Toronto, handing the tape to his friend Red
Hill (d.j.
and country music columnist) who passed it along to Jack
Feeney at RCA Records and Billy was signed in April. Susies
Better Half was
released in the spring of 1969, which went top five, then
followed by When
You Were A Lady later
in the year which went number one on Canada's national
charts. Billy was presented with two "Certificates of
Honour" by BMI
Canada Limited in
the company of other well known artists such as Terry
Jacks (Which
Way You Goin' Billy), Leonard Cohen, Gene MacLellan,
Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings.
In the fall, Billy, accompanied by John Pozer from RCA
Canada, flew to Nashville where he was introduced toChet
Atkins, vice-president of RCA. Arrangements were made for Ronny
Light to
produce To
Ma Ray, Tom O Ray, which was recorded in December, 1969
at the now famous "RCA Studio B" (Elvis Presley),
Nashville and released internationally June 1970. It hit the
top of the charts nationally in Canada and regionally in the
U.S.
Billy,
Ronnie Light, Joe & Chet
Atkins
Billy & Ronnie Light -
1997
Billy & Tillman Franks - 1996
A meeting in Nashville with Jerry
Guthrie led
to a collaboration of the song Fresno
Rodeo. (Jerry's dad Jack Guthrie wrote and recorded,
with the help of his cousin Woody, Oklahoma
Hills.) So, Billy and Jerry pulled up roots and headed
west to California with Jerry's wife, two kids, a dog and a
cat in Billy's "Olds 98". Billy reunited with his
songwriter friend Carl Walden, who introduced him to Sam
Goldstein. A five year management deal was signed with Great
Western Music Inc., (owned by Sam Goldstein - session
drummer in Hollywood, who drummed for the likes of Desi
Arnez and Frank
Sinatra) and an album, Lookin'
Up, was produced for Sussex
Records. While touring with Larry and Lorrie Collins,
Casey Tibbs heard Chernoff's song Fresno
Rodeo. He had it nominated for a Heritage
Award with
the Cowboy
Hall of Fame in
Oklahoma City.
In 1976 Billy left Los Angeles and the music business
returning to British Columbia. He worked on the "extra
gang" for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, cutting rock
in a quarry with a 12 pound hammer, selling vacuum cleaners
door-to-door, managed a real estate office and operated a
haul-truck in an open-pit mine for the next 9 years.
In 1985 Billy and Bill Brunette, who met Billy in Quebec in
the Glenda Lee Trio days, coincidently lived only 2 blocks
apart in the Vancouver area (Coquitlam). They eventually got
together and formed "Orange County", a 4 piece
band that toured Alberta for 8 months, booked through Ida
Banks in Edmonton. (Chernoff and Brunette wrote Sally In
Dallas on the Fresno Rodeo album.) The group disbanded and
Billy went working with Dean Phillips as a duo, "Billy
and Dean" for 3 years (1987 - 1990). In 1990 Billy
teamed up with Tom Birkiw to form "Lonesome
Highway" in Whitehorse, Yukon, where they played for
approximately a year and half at the Roadhouse Saloon. Danny
Freeway replaced Tom Birkiw and continued with Billy in
Whitehorse for a year till the fall of 1992.
Billy started his single club act in December of 1992, which
led him to back to the recording studio for the next phase
of his recording career and Ronny
Light in
Nashville. As a result of shopping his new production, Fresno
Rodeo, with Ronny Light, in 1995 Billy was invited to
perform by Bud
Fisher of
the Country
Music Association of Texas Awards Show in
Brady, Texas.
Immediately after the Awards Show, and after hearing the
Big
Time Fresno Rodeoproduction, Billy was
invited to meet with
Tillman
Franks, a pioneer country music business executive and
song writer in Shreveport. (Tillman is the Artist's Bureau
Director of the original Louisiana Hay Ride", the first
to book Hank Williams and Elvis Presley. He Managed
Johnny
Horton, Web Pierce, and David Houston, wrote hit songs
such as "How Far As Heaven" - Kitty Wells and
Johnny Wright ,
North
To Alaska and
Honky Tonk Man" - Johnny Horton.) Tillman discussed
with Billy the new direction of his music and offered
constructive suggestions and a positive direction.
On Tillman's advice, Billy Chernoff moved to east Texas, (
Cindy
Walker's hometown
of Mexia) in 1998 and began writing a new chapter in his
life, experiencing new opportunities for his music ministry
with the new album
Life
Song Revelations.
