In 2016, fans of the reality TV series “The Voice” cheered for award-winning, top-charting singer Billy Gilman. America watched as he rose in the competition to eventually snag the second-place spot as the Season 11 runner-up. As part of Team Adam Levine, Gilman showed off his fondly remembered, country-steeped singing chops but also ventured into new territory as a performer.
Viewers recalled Gilman due to his stunning early successes as a top-charting artist. In 2000, an 11-year-old Gilman released “One Voice,” which skyrocketed in sales. It landed on the Billboard Top 40 charts, entered the Top 20 on Billboard’s country chart, and was part of an album (also titled “One Voice”) that hit the #1 slot on the country charts. Gilman was nominated for a Grammy for that record, won an American Music Award, and received incredible success for an artist who was still a preteen. He was even named in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest singer to ever reach #1 on the Billboard Top Country Album Chart.
Now, Gilman has revved up his career for a new phase: Delving deep into the world of bluegrass.
While the Northeast is usually considered a high-population place filled with large cities, Gilman’s story reflects something different: “I did grow up very rurally.” Hailing from Rhode Island, he was raised on “a 40-acre horse farm with brooks…it was very low-key. Very simple.”
Gilman said he started very early with a love for country, explaining how, at age four, he was “singing Pam Tillis karaoke.” While his early music was country, bluegrass was always in his heart as well.
“I grew up with the Osborne Brothers and Ricky Skaggs,” Gilman explained.
His success on “The Voice” underscores how he’s evolved by experimenting with different genres. As he showed on the program, he’s able to transition easily as a performer, doing everything from country to pop to rock.
Apparently, “The Voice” actively courted the singer.
“They called like 16 times in four years,” he laughed. Eventually, Gilman said yes. His performances on the show ran the gamut, from covering Martina McBride to Queen.
“It was fun for me to play around with different songs, letting my voice go in different avenues,” Gilman said.
With “The Voice” driving him forward, Gilman never lost sight of the dream that simmered in the background. He said he recently read Barbra Streisand’s biography, and one thing that struck him is how long it took her for things to come to fruition.
“Fifteen years it took her to get a movie off the ground,” Gilman said, adding that he similarly “always kept a fire inside to do this project.”
He strives today to seamlessly combine his early fan base as a child star with his newer fans who found him via “The Voice.” Many are coming along for the ride and embracing his evolution into bluegrass. While he thinks people will always respond to “country stuff and storytelling,” he’s found a perfect home in the music born in Appalachia. It simply feels “right” for who he is.
“I believe in beautiful melodies…touching harmonies…I feel it [bluegrass] is truer to country bones than what country is right now,” he explained.
Gilman has released several singles, with a full album hopefully slated to drop in mid-April or May. Since taking that turn down the lane that leads to bluegrass, he’s been embraced by people such as Rhonda Vincent, who recorded the song “That’s Bluegrass to Me” with him. They debuted it at the Ryman Auditorium last year.
Gilman said he suspects the positive reception is due to listeners truly sensing where his heart is. “It’s working; people are believing in it,” he explained. I’m a big believer in truth. I always had a low tolerance for BS and lying. Any time I do a record, it has to come from a place of truth.”
He believes his warm reception from the bluegrass community is due to the sense of respect and authenticity he insists upon. He hopes it continues to propel his career. “I think they see I have the utmost respect and want to create longevity. It’s the sincerity of the transparency that I think works.” He added, “I’m a bad faker, and that’s what scared me about ‘The Voice.’”
As it turned out, Gilman discovered—after 16 attempts to get him onboard—that there was a way to experiment with genres and styles while still being true to himself.
He hopes to bring something new to bluegrass over time, to be part of a less closed-off movement that is more about welcoming alternative people—and views—to a genre that’s often been slow to change. Mountain music is always known for its deep reticence to change, but Gilman sees an opportunity for people from all walks of life to enter the fold without disrupting the existing deep traditional roots.
“I definitely – with the respect of the community of bluegrass and Americana – want to push the envelope with the utmost respect,” Gilman said.
When asked where he sees himself in a decade, Gilman’s reply was loaded with a sense of gratitude. “I hope to be still taking this in,” he said. “Enjoying what is being given back to what I’m giving out. I want to stay in this lane as long as they’ll have me,” he added.