Bill Nesbitt — Biographical Information

I first picked up a guitar at age 7 and was playing "My Bonny" by the end of the first week. Then I got bored and put it down till age 13 when I started getting interested in girls. My dad always wanted me to learn to play mandolin, but I waited until after his death in 1979 to pick it up — one of the major regrets of my life so far. Along the way I've also developed proficiency on upright bass and banjo.I've been mandolinist and singer for The Old School Bluegrass Band since 1990, and its Webmaster since 1997. I also played lots of festivals over a 12-year period with a band called Delta Grass. The principles in that band, Dave and Ida Brancecum, are now favorites at the Ozark Folk Center. Before that I played one very busy year with the Stone County Boys. The leader of that band, a fellow named Dave Leatherman, is still playing and singing out east. More recently, I played upright bass with a four-man acoustic country band called Roarin' Creek, and we won the True Value Country Music Showdown for Little Rock and all of Arkansas. We went to Tallahassee to compete in the regionals and were beaten by a 19-year-old blonde yodeler.

I grew up playing folk and bluegrass music, so I consider myself a folk musician and probably always will. But having been a Christian for more than thirty years, playing to and for Him will always be of paramount importance — both in my private walk and in the public arena, whatever form that may take.

Like most visual artists, I don't even remember learning how to draw, I was so young when I started. I always wanted to be a "commercial artist" (along with "studio musician") because I thought it sounded cool. I saw Darren Stevens on "Bewitched" showing clients his ad markups and thought that was neat. Now I do art for the same reasons I do music: about one-third for the money and two-thirds to feed the addiction. Like music, Color & Design gets into one's blood.