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Today an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. He recorded several major hits, including "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands". Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for four more. His life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Still Bill. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. ..... 'N Joy

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Withers, the youngest of six children, was born in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia. He was born with a stutter and has said he had a hard time fitting in. Raised in nearby Beckley, he was 13 years old when his father died. Withers enlisted with the United States Navy at the age of 18 and served for nine years, during which time he overcame his stutter and became interested in singing and writing songs. He left the Navy in 1965. Using the $250 he received from selling his furniture to IBM co-worker Ron Sierra, he relocated to Los Angeles in 1967 to start a musical career. Withers worked as an assembler for several different companies, including Douglas Aircraft Corporation, while recording demo tapes with his own money, shopping them around and performing in clubs at night. When he debuted with the song "Ain't No Sunshine", he refused to resign from his job because he believed the music business was a fickle industry.

During early 1970, Withers' demonstration tape was auditioned favorably by Clarence Avant, owner of Sussex Records. Avant signed Withers to a record deal and assigned former Stax Records stalwart Booker T. Jones to produce Withers' first album. Four three-hour recording sessions were planned for the album, but funding caused the album to be recorded in three sessions with a six-month break between the second and final sessions. Just as I Am was released in 1971 with the tracks, "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Grandma's Hands" as singles. The album features Stephen Stills playing lead guitar. On the cover of the album, Withers is pictured at his job at Weber Aircraft in Burbank, California, holding his lunch box.

The album was a success, and Withers began touring with a band assembled from members of The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band: drummer James Gadson, guitarist Benorce Blackmon, keyboardist Ray Jackson, and bassist Melvin Dunlap. At the 14th annual Grammy Awards, on Tuesday, March 14, 1972, Withers won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for "Ain't No Sunshine." The track had already sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA in September 1971.

During a hiatus from touring, Withers recorded his second album, Still Bill. The single, "Lean on Me" went to number one the week of July 8, 1972. It was Withers' second gold single with confirmed sales in excess of three million. His follow-up, "Use Me" released in August 1972, became his third million seller, with the R.I.A.A. gold disc award taking place on October 12, 1972. His performance at Carnegie Hall on October 6, 1972, was recorded, and released as the live album Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall on November 30, 1972. In 1974, Withers recorded the album +'Justments. Due to a legal dispute with the Sussex company, Withers was unable to record for some time thereafter. During this time, he wrote and produced two songs on the Gladys Knight & the Pips record I Feel a Song, and in October 1974 performed in concert together with James Brown, Etta James, and B.B. King in Zaire four weeks prior to the historic Rumble in the Jungle fight between Foreman and Ali. Footage of his performance was included in the 1996 documentary film When We Were Kings, and he is heard on the accompanying soundtrack. Other footage of his performance is included in the 2008 documentary film Soul Power, which is based on archival footage of the 1974 Zaire concert.

After Sussex Records folded, Withers signed with Columbia Records in 1975. His first album release with the label, Making Music, Making Friends, included the single "She's Lonely", which was featured in the film Looking for Mr. Goodbar. During the next three years he released an album each year with Naked & Warm (1976), Menagerie (1977, containing the successful "Lovely Day"), "Bout Love" (1978) and "Get on Down"; the latter song also included on the Looking for Mr. Goodbar soundtrack. Due to problems with Columbia and being unable to get songs approved for his album, he concentrated on joint projects from 1977 to 1985, including "Just the Two of Us", with jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., which was released during June 1980 It won a Grammy on February 24, 1982. Withers next did "Soul Shadows" with the Crusaders, and "In the Name of Love" with Ralph MacDonald, the latter being nominated for a Grammy for vocal performance.

In 1982, Withers was a featured vocalist on the album, "Dreams in Stone" by French singer Michel Berger. This record included one composition co-written and sung by Withers, an upbeat disco song about New York City entitled "Apple Pie." The album was not released in North America, although it contains several songs about America. In 1985 came Watching You Watching Me, which featured the Top 40-rated R&B single "Oh Yeah", and ended Withers' business association with Columbia Records. Withers stated in interviews that a lot of the songs approved for the album, in particular, two of the first three singles released, were the same songs which were rejected in 1982, hence contributing significantly to the eight-year hiatus between albums. Withers also stated it was frustrating seeing his record label release an album for Mr. T, an actor, when they were preventing him, an actual singer, from releasing his own. He toured with Jennifer Holliday in 1985 to promote what would be his final studio album.

His disdain for Columbia's A&R executives or "blaxperts", as he termed them, trying to exert control over how he should sound if he wanted to sell more albums, played a part in his making the decision to not record or re-sign to a record label after 1985, effectively ending his performing career, even though remixes of his previously recorded music were released after his 'retirement'. Finding musical success later in life than most, at 32, he has said he was socialized as a 'regular guy' who had a life before the music, so he did not feel an inherent need to keep recording once he fell out of love with the industry. He has also stated that he does not miss touring and performing live and does not regret leaving music behind.

Withers married actress Denise Nicholas in 1973, during her stint on the sitcom Room 222. The couple divorced the following year. In 1976, Withers married Marcia Johnson, and they had two children, Todd and Kori. Marcia eventually assumed the direct management of his Beverly Hills-based publishing companies, in which his children also became involved as they became adults.

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It can prove somewhat difficult to place Bill Withers among his peers. Despite a brief revival thanks to Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, he will always remain something of an outsider to the soul movement. Starting out as an aircraft mechanic for the Navy, his performing career happened more or less by accident. Surprised to be invited to re-record his own demos -- a modest Withers had intended his songs for others -- he came forth with two brilliant albums chock-full of intriguing stories on mournful alcoholics, adulterers, and his late grandmother's hands. His exceptional talent as a storyteller placed him perhaps more in league with West Coast singer songwriters like Stephen Stills, who helped out on his debut, Just as I Am. A Vietnam chant, "I Can't Write Left Handed," placed him further apart as a socially conscious performer. The accompanying album, Live at Carnegie Hall, makes clear Withers is about total commitment to the music and music alone. Once called "the poet Stax never had" by onetime producer Booker T., his influence on artists like Ben Harper and Erykah Badu is not to be taken lightly. Much of the above can be said about Making Music. Because of the regretful demise of Withers' original label, Sussex, his fifth album was released on Columbia. It possesses the same down-to-earthiness and eye for ordinary day life as his former releases, though the production sometimes trades the organic "feel" for the familiar "end of the '70s slickness." He's excused since at least he didn't turn disco! No dancing across the floor for Bill: friends and family is what remains important to him, as becomes evident from the portrait on the album cover's backside and in songs like "Family Table" and "Don't You Want to Stay." Even when a song does not seem to have a subject but itself ("Sometimes a Song"), Withers and band deliver it with an urgency that would make Barry White shiver. To stay on the subject: instead of White wondering "what he's going to do with you," wouldn't you rather have Withers "Make Love to Your Mind"?

Bill Withers - Making Music   (flac 229mb)

01 I Wish You Well 3:57
02 The Best You Can 2:33
03 Make Love To Your Mind 6:23
04 I Love You Dawn 2:36
05 She's Lonely 5:15
06 Sometimes A Song 4:44
07 Paint Your Pretty Picture 5:43
08 Family Table 3:13
09 Don't You Want To Stay? 4:03
10 Hello Like Before 5:29

Bill Withers - Making Music (ogg  97mb)

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Anybody who likes Bill is going to want to have this. Laid back and smooth, it's classic Withers. The title is provocative but the music is like a warm blanket on a cold night or perhaps, more apropos for Soul Music,a fan on a hot one, this album delivers the goods. Bill Withers sound has always been funky. But he never recorded an all out funk album but this one comes closest. That focus on the spesific type of groove along with the strong writing made this out in the end to be one of Wither's finest (and often least sung) records. It's not the only album of Bill Withers' to have, but if you want to go for the next round this has to be part of the ride.

Bill Withers - Naked & Warm    (flac 201mb)

01 Close To Me 3:54
02 Naked & Warm (Heaven! Oh! Heaven!) 5:46
03 Where You Are 3:56
04 Dreams 5:32
05 If I Didn't Mean You Well 3:03
06 I'll Be With You 3:10
07 City Of The Angels 10:46
08 My Imagination 4:54

Bill Withers - Naked & Warm  (ogg  92mb )

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Following the twin peaks of Still Bill and Live at Carnegie Hall in the early '70s, Bill Withers had a little trouble sustaining his peak of creativity, along with his chart positions. He still made good music and had hits, but had trouble delivering a consistent album that brought him back to the heights of his Sussex work. Finally, in 1977, he delivered Menagerie, an assured return to form by one of soul's greatest singer/songwriters of the '70s. If Menagerie doesn't have the earthiness or consistent brilliance of Still Bill, it nevertheless has a solid set of songs and an easy, relaxed charm that is thoroughly winning. Where his Sussex material was slyly eclectic, touching on a number of different styles, this album is more cohesive, a smooth album that points the way toward quiet storm while retaining a warm soulfulness, largely due to Withers' wonderful voice. Even when the tempo gets sprightly, as on "Lovely Night for Dancing," there's a relaxed vibe and a nice sheen to the production that keeps things even-handed and easy. As such, those listeners who preferred the darker undercurrents that ran through such songs as "Use Me" and "Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?" may find this a little too amiable, but that's just a matter of taste -- this is an easy record to like, after all, with a consistent tone and a soothing vibe, plus a good set of songs. If it's not as distinctive as his Sussex records, it's nevertheless an undeniable high point in his catalog.

 Bill Withers - Menagerie    (flac  226mb)

01 Lovely Day 4:15
02 I Want To Spend The Night 3:41
03 Lovely Night For Dancing 5:51
04 Then You Smile At Me 4:54
05 She Wants To (Get On Down) 3:15
06 It Ain't Because Of Me Baby 3:31
07 Tender Things 5:02
08 Wintertime 3:17
09 Let Me Be The One You Need 4:44

Bill Withers - Menagerie  (ogg  88mb)

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Even though his previous Columbia album 'Bout Love had been a commercial disappointment,Bill Withers found enormous success singing with Grover Washington Jr at the beginning of the 80's on the huge pop hit Just The Two Of Us,not to mention a similar vocal on the Crusaders Soul Shadows during the same year. Suddenly Bill Withers career was showing signs of success again only thing time,his musical priorities had changed a bit. So on this album,recorded eight years following his previous one, he teamed up with big name producers and session musicians such as David Foster,Ralph McDonald and Paulinho Da Costa along with guests such a Larry Carlton for an album that thoroughly explored his new musical focus.

The production of these snappy,mid tempo urban contemporary pop/funk grooves is built around live instrumentation. This can be heard to even greater effect on the uptempo boogie funk type production of "Don't Make Me Wait". For a singer/songwriter/musician of his nature, his music has always somehow been flexible enough to accommodate many of the production changes time has demanded, yet still maintain it's own signature. Applying that to this particular album in fact I'd have to say if this is where he chose to cap off his career,even though it never got a proper follow up,would'nt be at all a bad place to conclude things at all.

 Bill Withers - Watching You Watching Me    (flac  261mb)

01 Oh Yeah! 4:01
02 Something That Turns You On 4:23
03 Don't Make Me Wait 3:59
04 Heart In Your Life 4:13
05 Watching You Watching Me 5:47
06 We Could Be Sweet Lovers 3:26
07 You Just Can't Smile It Away 4:41
08 Steppin' Right Along 5:43
09 Whatever Happens 3:14
10 You Try To Find A Love 5:17

Bill Withers - Watching You Watching Me    (ogg  102mb)

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