Bil Carpenter the Gospel Music Historian

Bil Carpenter is co-founder of Capital Entertainment (CE), an entertainment public relations company based in Washington, D.C.
Bill's knowledge of music harks back to his early childhood when he spent countless hours listening to his favorite Lps in the late 1970s. He loved everything from the Pink Floyd he heard at school, his father’s doo wop collection, his mother’s Gladys Knight 45s, to his neighbor’s Donny & Marie Osmond albums. Carpenter spent his last two high school years at the Duke Ellington School for the Arts where he had master classes taught by Ossie Davis, Eartha Kitt and Lena Horne among others. He moved on to the American University in Washington, D.C. While in college, he spent a summer abroad at the University of Bourgogne in France and held an internship at the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) where he worked on the press staff for the premier of Oliver Stone’s CBS drama series "Tour of Duty" in 1987.

After graduating from college with a B.A. in history and a minor in French in 1991, Carpenter joined Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. As the inaugural festivities approached, Carpenter was assigned to solicit press opportunities for a variety of celebrities including Little Richard, Tony Bennett, Quincy Jones and Judy Collins. Following that great adventure, Bill served as the senior press secretary for Coretta Scott King's 30th anniversary March on Washington in 1993 and secured the participation of Halle Berry and Eartha Kitt. In 1994 Bill began to handle publicity for hip hop crooner Aaliyah’s first album "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number."
Over the next couple of years, Bill handled publicity for a comedy club and spent six months on a cross-country tour with the late Phyllis Hyman and the Fifth Beatle Billy Preston as the publicist for their stage musical "Blues Bar."

During this same period, Carpenter began freelance writing about music. He was a regular contributing writer to the Washington Post (1991-1993) and People magazine (1993-1997). He wrote dozens of stories for other publications such as Goldmine and Living Blues. Within a three-year period, he wrote over 300 articles on performers such as Johnny Mathis, Joan Baez and Sisqo of Dru Hill. Carpenter was also a contributor to "The All Music Guide" (Miller- Freeman), a music reference book, now in its fourth printing. Around the same time, Carpenter co-founded Capital Entertainment (CE) which has done PR work for CeCe Winans, Smokie Norful, Vickie Winans, T.D. Jakes, attorney Johnnie Cochran and "Brady Bunch" mom Florence Henderson among others. He’s written liner note essays for Warner Brothers Records, Malaco Records and EMI Records. He developed the concept and compiled Word Entertainment’s current All-Star Gospel CD series (Vol. #1 has spent over 40 weeks on the Billboard gospel chart and peaked at #7 on the survey). His songs have been recorded by Grammy nominees Pop Winans and Candi Staton. In Fall 2005, Backbeat Books in San Francisco published Carpenter’s first book, Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia. Carpenter’s “Did You Know” trivia segments can also be heard weekly on “The BeBe Winans Radio Show” that is syndicated to over 100 radio stations throughout the USA.

 

 

"I love Bill and I am glad to see that he has taken time out to educate us all about the greatest genre of music - Gospel Music!"            
CECE WINANS, five-time Grammy Award winning vocalist