Kelly Williams + Rick Diamond + Pat Terry w/special guest Pam Terry
Supported Charity for the month- Villa International Atlanta
7:00 :: Kelly Williams
Atlanta based singer-songwriter, Kelly Williams, rediscovered a piece of herself she’d packed away decades ago with her childhood guitar when she began taking lessons at the age of 40. Between carpool, laundry, and errands, Kelly began to write songs at her kitchen table. With each song, Kelly attempts to express the emotional truth of her experiences, sometimes through the simplest, most mundane moments of daily life. Kelly believes it;s never too late to pursue something you love. The nagging desire to create has always been inside Kelly, and she has finally chosen to follow her desire to make music, hoping to inspire and move people with her melodies and words. “When God closes a door, he opens a window…” One week before the country shut down in 2020, Kelly was in Nashville participating in a workshop taught by Suzy Bogguss, and on Sunday, March 8th, she played at the Bluebird Cafe! With that incredible experience under her belt, she was ready to get out and perform more, but all of those opportunities quickly vanished. During the pandemic, a fellow songwriter reached out to Kelly, and through that new friendship, she was introduced to a producer in Nashville, Bryan Austin Cuevas. In August of 2020, Kelly decided it was time to invest in herself and record some of her songs. Outside Looking In is a collection of songs that speak to the universal highs and lows of being human. “Kelly Williams writes from the heart about the ups and downs of life with authentic emotions supporting every word she sings!” Hayden Nicholas (Songwriter). Her debut album is a new take on classic country. https://songwhip.com/kellywilliams/outside-looking-in Kelly’s first single, “Old Habits”, is somewhat of an anthem for anyone who can relate to feeling stuck in old patterns. She expresses this universal truth by contrasting the negative habits we can fall victim to against the hopefulness of positive habits such as prayer. “Kelly Williams taps into the cyclical struggles of human experience with poise and grace.” Jon Wright (Radio Airplay) https://songwhip.com/kellywilliams/old-habits Her second single, “Southern Comfort”, is a classic country break-up song with a twist on the title. Breakups can leave us feeling lost and unsettled, searching for familiar comforts to help us heal, and sometimes a little southern comfort is just what we need. https://songwhip.com/kellywilliams/southern-comfort Kelly Williams draws the listener in with simple yet poignant stories that are relatable and familiar, tugging at your heartstrings with each song. “Kelly Williams debut album plays more like a veteran artist from a simply better time in country music. A time where the point was not that it be country but that it be real and moving and pleasurable. It’s a collection that is as pure, unaffected and refreshing as the artist herself.” Wilder Embry (Songwriter / Music Artist)
7:30 :: Rick Diamond
Rick Diamond has always been a writer: short stories in third grade, co-writing his first structurally sound song, “Follow Me,” in eighth grade with band mate Steve Hagler. (Imagine two kids urging the world to follow them… Where to, the playground?) In his late teens and early 20s, Rick wrote a few songs for his Illinois rock band. In his 30s he wrote his first novel — long before he had anything worth saying. In his early 40s he wrote his second novel; and then five years later when he got the nerve up to submit it to a New York literary agent he met at a writers’ conference, he landed a deal and lost a deal all within three weeks. Not one to try harder, he turned his hand to screenwriting and knocked out a couple of movie scripts and then a TV pilot. Then wanting to know what happened to those characters, he wrote nine more episodes. During all those years, Rick managed to write more than a hundred songs about love, life, politics, and whatever else at that moment was bothering him. Rick Diamond has played in venues from Illinois to New York, from Florida to Tennessee, from one Carolina to the next, from Texas to Alabama, and here in Georgia for more than a few years. His songs can be sampled and downloaded at Rick Diamond Reverbnation and listened to in better fidelity at writersroomcafe.com — but only if you have great big studio monitors for speakers on your computer (seriously, don’t do the phone thing).
8:00 :: Pat Terry w/special guest Pam Terry
Songwriter Pat Terry was born in 1952, and grew up in the groundbreaking days of American rock ‘n roll. His earliest musical memories revolve around a jukebox that played in the restaurant owned and operated by his father. The music of Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Horton became the soundtrack for summers spent working in the family business. It wasn’t until the Beatles invaded America however, that Terry picked up a guitar and began making music of his own. In 1970, those early influences began to surface when Terry started songwriting, and a newfound Christian faith inspired his first foray into a full time musical career. As one of the pioneers of the Contemporary Christian music genre, he was part of the first wave of artists to be signed to the then fledgling Myrrh Records label. Between 1974 and 1980 he wrote and recorded seven albums with his own Pat Terry Group and toured the country playing a unique blend of inspirational country, pop, and blues, earning him a loyal following of listeners. During that time his songs appeared on albums of a diverse list of artists that included pop singer, B.J. Thomas, country great Ray Price, gospel songstress Evie, and the iconic country and western duo, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Terry’s songs, “Home Where I Belong”, and “I Can’t Wait” became standards in the CCM genre. After disbanding his group in 1980, Terry recorded three critically acclaimed solo albums. Produced by his friend and fellow Georgian, Mark Heard, the recordings featured a more rock oriented sound, hearkening back to Terry’s earlier influences. His heartfelt confessional lyrics wedded to this more aggressive sound, stirred controversy in Christian Music circles, but it inspired a new generation of listeners who responded to the honesty of his new direction. In 1985 Terry decided to leave the rigors of the road and make songwriting his primary pursuit. The new tradition of country music being recorded by artists such as Steve Earle, Ricky Skaggs, and Emmylou Harris, convinced him to become better acquainted with Nashville. As the co-writer of Foster and Lloyd’s “Lie To Yourself”, he enjoyed his first country music songwriting success. Then, in 1990, he co-authored with Travis Tritt, the singer’s first number one country hit, “Help Me Hold On”. Throughout the nineties Terry continued writing and co-writing in Nashville, landing songs with a variety of artist’s including, The Oak Ridge Boys, Ronna Reeves, and Kenny Chesney. During this period he enjoyed the success of two more number one songs, Tanya Tucker’s “It’s A Little Too Late”, co-written with Hall of Fame songwriter, Roger Murrah, and Sammy Kershaw’s “National Working Woman’s Holiday”, another co-write with Murrah and Nashville veteran James Dean Hicks. In more recent years, Terry’s songs have appeared on albums by country hitmakers John Anderson and Tracy Byrd. In 2005, radio in both country and gospel formats played Terry’s beautiful “Someplace Green”, as recorded by The Oak Ridge Boys, and in 2007 country superstar Alan Jackson recorded Pat’s classic wedding song, “That’s The Way”. Terry came full circle when in 2008 he released “Laugh For A Million Years”, a unique collection of country and pop oriented songs that brought him back to his original role as a performer of his own material. His most recently recorded CD, 2019’s “How Hard It Is To Fly” showcases a matured writing style and a continuing creative curiosity that has been the hallmark of his work. He currently writes for his own ASCAP affiliated company, End of August Music, and resides with his wife Pamela in the Atlanta area suburb, Smyrna, Georgia.
