Bill Samsel

singer, songwriter, recording artist . . .

The "RENEGADE" CD showcases some of his best songwriting and vocal achievements.  Bill Samsel has developed his own, unique vocal style and sound. His recent CD entitled "Renegade" on the Brimstone Records label is a mix of jazz, blues, reggae and rock. Having taken a year in the making, Samsel wrote and arranged the songs, recorded, engineered and mixed down the tracks single-handedly. He has been criticized, not for the musical composition of the CD, but because his relevant social and political lyrics are too "controversial". Then again, there are those who hear it that recognise it for what it is...Bill Samsel in top form, at his best artistically, trying to communicate what he hears in his head and what he feels in his heart. That's what an artist is supposed to do . . . 
     “I’ve written songs that could be classified as Blues, Rock, Pop, Reggae, Jazz, Folk, Country, etc. I love all kinds of different music. My influences range pretty wide.” He says. “From Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee, Sam Cooke, to the Beatles, Traffic, the brothers Gibb, to Donovan, Cat Stevens, Gordon Lightfoot. Then there’s Morrison, Jagger and Bowie and then Cash, Yoakam and Willie and then Bob Marley, the Itals and Gregory Isaacs there's B. B. King, John Lee Hooker. I listen to Beethoven, Ravi Shankar and R. Carlos Nakai. I could go on and on.”    
     "Over the years I went from mimicking other artists to experimenting and it took a long time but I eventually found my own voice, my own unique sound, so that I don’t sound like anyone else. Elvis had his own sound. The same with Donovan and Yoakam and Winwood. You can’t mistake them when you hear them. Sam Cooke had his own sound and nobody else sounded like him. When you hear Sam Cooke...you know right off that it’s Sam Cooke! That’s what a vocalist has to do."
     "Another thing that makes an artist is the ability to write songs that are potential HITS. Not just one or two but many. I’ve always felt that the greatest hit songs were simple and short, three or four minutes in length, something simple and short and "catchy". The "hook" is extremely important. It’s the hook that catches in people’s minds so that they go about their business whistling or humming the tune. It sticks in their mind." 

    The title "Renegade" was chosen because it was relative not only to the overall bent of the material but also as it related to the artist as well. Bill Samsel certainly was being a renegade with the Renegade CD. He was spreading New World Order awareness. He insisted that all of the lyrics be provided in the CD liner so the each song’s meanings would be quite clear.

    "Utterly Revolting" by Sam the Dexter, aka Bill Samsel, is a highly charged and lyrically poignant collection of songs. "F**k You George Bush", is especially so. Much the same could be said for "Corporate Nation" and "The Brain Police". Samsel lays on the Henry Vestine guitar treatments during the R&B tune "The Price You Pay" and plays around with the back-beat of "Skull And Bones" rather nicely. Outstanding is the brief but memorable, "Mediotic Stupor" and the simple but effective, "Jesse Was an Outlaw ". "Help, I’m A Sheep" is Bill’s short rendition of "Help; I’m A Rock" from the "Freak-Out" album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Lastly, there is "Bullshit’s Deep", which is lyrically, a combination of "Mediotic Stupor", "Corporate Nation" and "Help I’m A Sheep" that proves rather interesting.