Willie Ames

From the depths of the ocean off the coast of sunny San Diego, California, USA, Planet Earth, Milky Way, the Universe and beyond, comes Willie Ames (guitarist/banjoist/singer/songwriter) born August 14, 1981. Willie first learned to play the guitar at the age of 5 with simple lessons from his father who taught him how to form the basic chords A through G. From then on, playing the guitar was a big hobby for Willie outside of school and sports. Self teaching himself songs by ear led the way for Willie to grab a solid grasp for playing songs on the guitar. At the age of 18, Willie became deeply inspired by the music of Mark Knopfler with Dire Straits and Lindsey Buckingham with Fleetwood Mac. While attending college, studying Mechanical Engineering, Willie decided that embarking on a rock and roll music career was worth a shot when he discovered his musical talents. Willie has written and continues to write his own original material that has listeners comparing his sound to his influences and other well known musicians. Willie does not use a pick and, rather, uses the bare skin of his finger tips to finger pick. This allows for a more versatile sound and reveals more taste in his guitar playing technique. He also uses a bare hand strumming technique from time to time. Willie’s finger work can be heard in almost every music line he writes and is especially present in his instrumental track titled “Ice Breaker”. In his songs that include vocals, Willie is playing the guitar/banjo and singing at the same time. His track titled “Desert Run”, which happens to be the favorite according to his listeners, is a good example that proves his ability to finger pick his instrument and sing at the same time. His lyrics are written with influence of everyday experiences as well as fictional/artistic thoughts and ideas.  Willie plays a 6 string acoustic guitar, both metal string and nylon string. At age 23, Willie picked up a 5 string banjo. With his crisp and well developed finger work already established on the guitar, learning and self teaching himself the banjo came naturally. He began to write an instrumental tune titled "Black Widow" within 10 minutes of first picking up the banjo.  As many other banjo players play a bluegrass style of banjo, Willie digs deep to find a harder, darker, rock type of sound. A 6 string electric guitar also gets worked into the cycle of instrument use.  Since the spring of 2004, Willie has been non stop, performing showcases at music venues and party functions with his original music all over the United States (48 states covered to date!!!). He has pursuit of reaching many other locations with his performances. Willie manages to distribute his CD to everyone in attendance at every performance. The CD consists of 16 original tracks with both his solo work and collaborations with other musicians. So far, Willie has released approximately 23,000 CDs to the public and he won’t be stopping anytime soon. His music is also available for digital download in iTunes music store and at many other websites of music distribution. Willie performs 100% live, both solo and with other musicians.