Photo by Conni Freestone
Gordon Brown and Reagan Richards of Williams Honor just returned home after their second tour across the pond. Along with a group of other artists that were promoting the Light of Day Foundation, founded by Bob Benjamin. LOD raises funds through music gigs to help find a cure for Parkinson's Disease along with ALS, PSP and other related diseases.
Years ago I worked with Christine Martucci and I remember the first time I met Reagan Richard’s on the outdoor summer stage at the Stone Pony, in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Reagan performed with Christine Martucci and The Band of Love. I just knew she had the, “IT Factor.” I could feel her unique energy coming from the stage as she performed.
Gordon Brown and I go way back before the very first Wave Gathering Music Festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I remember reaching out to Gordon requesting booking consideration for the artists I was representing at the time. He not only was extremely kind and respectful to me, he welcomed these artists and found days and time slots for them to fill.
Photo by Conni Freestone
It is hard to believe Williams Honor has been together 10 years now. They have built a solid Jersey Country Band from the ground up with so many accolades along the way.
Coming off their second European Tour, I asked them how it felt and here are their replies…
I know ya both just got home from across the pond on tour supporting Light Of Day, where did you travel to? Any different locations from last year?
GB: We had so much fun, with our gang of merry men, James Maddock, Bobby Mahoney, Joe D'Urso, and Rob Dye. We traveled to and through Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and France.
How was this year's tour different compared to last year?
GB: It seemed to grow a bit more, with more people coming out and raising a bit more money for the cause, even more than previous years. We had a good bunch of sold out shows.
Do you have a favorite music venue and country you traveled too?
GB: Each location is very special, however your readers will be very happy to know that in Dorphof, Germany is a place called “The Upstage”.
The incredible Ras and Petra Bartel have created a mind blowing duplication of all the special landmarks from Asbury Park, complete with Madam Marie's and Tillie inside their amazing barn venue.
You couldn't feel more at home, unless you were at home in Asbury Park. They treat you with such care and kindness. There really is nothing like it.
RR: I second Gordon’s answer.
You can’t compare other venues to Ras & Petra’s.
Everywhere we play is special… no doubt about it. But the beautiful hearts of these two wonderful humans is really next level. That’s what music is all about… heart.
Is there a place anywhere, in the world, you would love to travel to in the future and why?
GB: Venus, Mars, Jupiter and beyond.
RR: I’d love to go anywhere where people love live music - where they have ears to listen and hearts to open.
What was the BEST part of touring?
GB: Being able to go around the world with people you've known and shared common bonds for decades is one of the best things you could ever do in this career.
For me personally, I've known Joe and Rob for decades, James I've been listening to for twenty years, and just started to nudge him these last few years him to move out of the city and down by us on the Jersey Shore, which I'm happy to report he is now our neighbor. Bobby has been playing with WH since the very beginning as our acoustic guitarist (and Reagan and I just celebrated our decade anniversary as Williams Honor).
RR: The best part of touring is exactly what anyone would think is the best - Sharing our music to passionate music loving audiences… traveling with musicians we love who all have the same energy and spirit… Meeting new people day after day, night after night that start off as strangers and end as FAMILY…
And, naturally getting to see parts of the world we may not ever had seen is a beautiful thing.
How do the audiences across the pond differ to audiences in the USA?
GB: These audiences in particular are big Jersey music fans, so all we have to do is show them all what we do... there are no genre specific preconceptions, plus they see the bond everyone has with one another on stage so it comes across as one big band from the neighborhood.
RR: The Williams Honor Army (WHArmy) is what we loving call our beloved WH followers.
I kind of gauge audiences based on that.
We certainly didn’t know what to expect prior to our first European tour. So to me, these audiences for this tour feel just like home and feel like our WHArmy: passionate, energetic, supportive, loving, encouraging people.
It’s a beautiful thing.
As I viewed your videos, while you are on tour, I felt a very hopeful connection and sense of kindness. Do you feel it also? Especially in many of the videos where the audience was lighting candles while you were performing.
GB: We all do. For many reasons. One, is the cause for which we were all doing this... the Light of Day Foundation and for our friend Bob Benjamin, raising funds to help find a cure for Parkinson's, ALS, PSP, and related diseases.
We're traveling the world, playing to sold out audiences not just to perform our own music, but to come together for a much bigger cause. Those videos with the candles are during one of Joe's (D’Urso) songs called "Hold On" …it's a very special moment that everyone sings together with the audience. Pure magic and connection, it's palpable.
RR: Those moments Gordon speaks of are magical. You have audiences that may not even speak the same language, yet in their hearts, they are.
We traveled during the Christmas holiday season, so in addition to “HOLD ON” that we did every night…in some cities, we did “SILENT NIGHT”…we’d do it first in English and then have the audience sing it back in their native language.
I had tears when we did this. To me, it just put the explanation mark on the fact that across the world ~we all can find ways to connect. The saying, “music is universal” exists for a reason.
Is there a certain word, that you feel is difficult to pronounce and what is it and what does it mean?
GB: Lots of em, and we don't have to be overseas to say em! Some of the proper named cities in their homegrown dialect is truly impossible for our language to pronounce. You'll have to take our word for it.
RR: Gordon’s not kidding about NOT having to be overseas…he is speaking from experience.
On tour, Hahaha…for the life of us… none of us could say the city in Denmark called Birkerød… it is absolutely the craziest pronunciation. So we just said Copenhagen.
Was/is the language a barrier in anyway? How did you manage when you only speak English and your audiences do not speak English?
GB: Many of the audiences actually do understand English, but in the few areas where they don't, we just have Reagan Richards speak her own RR language and that seems to get the point across. She's almost like a big Chewbacca when we go to other continents.
RR: I don’t know how to process Gordon’s answer… but if he thinks I’m Chewbacca.., then Chewbacca I am! Haha… I can’t say any of us had any problems at all communicating.
It was wild!!! It’s like, even though we didn’t speak the same language, in that time we were there - we all did.
Were there any foods you refused to eat and why? Were there any you sampled for the very first time and enjoyed or not?
GB: Reagan has problems eating anything other than what's on the kids menu in America... imagine her palette in Belgium or Sweden?
I on the other hand will eat almost anything and take big risks without hesitation. It is really fun to experience other cultures and their foods and techniques of cooking and eating.
RR: As I pull myself out from under the bus Gordon threw me under… haha...
I admit that I am really simple when it comes to food… I’m not much of an adventurous eater... So I stick to eating A LOT of bread, potatoes and candy.
Of course, other than your Madison Square Garden gig, opening for Bon Jovi, do you have any other opener you would love to travel on the road with, as their opener?
GB: Keith Urban, Lainey Wilson, Guns n Roses, Luke Combs, Carly Pearce, Ashley McBride, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town, among many...
We love being on the road and getting the chance to open for acts we really dig, we've had a blast with acts like Old Dominion, Lee Brice, LeeAnn Rimes, Runaway June, Jessie James Decker, Eric Paslay and about a hundred others.
RR: Keith would be a great one… we’re huge fans of his music and him personally.
I also gotta say, I’d love a girl power thing - I’d love to open / tour with Lainey Wilson… I just love a real good female energy, havin' big fun and being silly as you wanna be - and Lainey definitely feels like a perfect match for that.
What would it take to make the above come true?
GB: Music biz stuff that you would be very bored hearing about.
RR: Yes, business stuff that often times is hard to understand…
But aside from that… What it takes is everything we’re doing: Continuously writing new music and staying connected. No one ever knows what’s around the corner, but ya can’t be hiding under a rock cause then what’s around the corner will never find you.
Do each of you have a Favorite living artist and an artist who is no longer with us?
GB: My current modern favorite is Luke Combs. Passed, but never too far away, Glenn Frey.
RR: My current modern favorite is Lainey Wilson... she gets it…and she’s authentic.
I gotta add a “LIVING LEGEND” act, too and that is ……DOLLY.
My Lord, she is pure magic.
The artist no longer with us - Patsy Cline…but I gotta add Bowie & Lennon to that.
Tell people about, the Williams Honor Army of Fans/ Friends, and how did this come about?
RR: I’ve touched on it earlier in this..but it can’t be said enough…
Our WHArmy fuels us. They are the heartbeat of what we do.
They are just as excited about the music as we are…they sing along to every word and really find their own ways to connect to each song.
I absolutely love when people come up and say things like, “the 2nd verse in “Goodbye Tulsa” felt like it was about me” - That’s because it IS. Our songs are not just about us - They’re about the listener. We love to bounce things off of them. For example, give them listening parties/ shows to get feedback. We truly love them so so much and we can’t imagine a WILLIAMS HONOR without a WHArmy.
If you could live anywhere in the world and still do what you do, where would it be and why?
RR: If I could live anywhere else, I’d choose to live somewhere peaceful… with passionate music lovers. (I actually did say while on tour… SWITZERLAND)
I can see why Tina Turner resided there.
How has the country music genre in New Jersey changed since you birthed Williams Honor?
GB: We are proud to call what we do Jersey Country... it's all the things people love about country music with the grit and musical roots of where we come from, that we wear on our sleeve.
In the past ten years since WH started and the ten years before that when I had HWY9 on RCA Nashville and Epic/ Sony before that, you can hear all the influence... the songs, the grit, the Jersey pride and the country influence in the songs and the harmonies. It has been amazing to watch our area start to launch some newer country acts, mind blowing to watch and be a part of Wildwood's Barefoot Country Fest each year and see the popularity of country stations take hold in our area, with people like Mark Razz at 92.5 XTU becoming one of the genre's most well respected program directors.
Everyone used to think you needed to move to Nashville to make country music... but now you can do it in my studio right by the beach with me - That's where all the Williams Honor records have been done as well as many others.
RR: Oh this is a loaded question...
I’ll take you even further back than the onset of WH. I first moved to Nashville in 1999 because I was working toward getting a record deal.
I remember when I was packing up from Jersey and telling people I was leaving…
I’d get, “TENNESSEE??? You’re moving to TENNESSEE??? Why?”
I said because Nashville, Tennessee is the home of the music I write and perform.
And it was like I had 12 heads.
Now?... Let’s put it this way…if I had a dime for every person I hear is either moving or vacationing in Tennessee…haha… I could live VERY comfortably.
I mean…we all have witnessed how music and the industry has grown over the past 10 years or so…lines have been blurred to a point…
Country is a lot broader of a genre… so people in New Jersey who only loved listening to Bon Jovi or Bruce, now have found themselves buying tickets to country shows.
With country music audiences getting to hear real songs about real life and hear loud guitars and they’re getting a real authentic performance.
Tell us about your brand new single, “SIGNS”…
RR: “SIGNS” is SUCH a special song for WH.
Gordon & I constantly are writing…we have hundreds of songs over the past ten years. Some find their way to our albums…some find their way to live shows….some just hang out for years and are waiting for their moment.
This particular song, SIGNS, found its way to be released as its very own single… because it meant something special not just to us…but to sooo many.
The song is simply about that continuing connection with a lost loved one.
We have spoken so much about how we “HONOR” those that have passed on... Our band is named for that very reason - honoring both Gordon’s Dad and my Dad..(we just went with my Dad’s name, William, because it had a better ring to it) but it’s for both of our Dad’s. There is nothing like feeling that our departed mother, father, wife, husband, best friend is speaking to us. It’s so powerful…
My Mom had passed away 6 months prior to our first European tour…and i got the most powerful SIGN ..that brought me to tears in the middle of the Dublin venue we were playing in. We went back home and wrote the song immediately ..and began playing it for audiences a month later.
The very first night we played it at City Winery in New York City, we had a line of people waiting to talk to us about THEIR signs and what the song meant to them. You can’t ask for anything more as an artist. Seeing people so excited to share their stories is truly a beautiful feeling.
What’s up for 2025?
RR: We have some AMAZING things coming up in 2025… bigger shows, TV…
I’ll be doing a launch of new items in my honorX accessory line… BUT! One thing in particular we are really pumped for - is something we gave our audience a little taste of it at our “SIGNS” Release show…
I’m not giving it away yet... but I’ll say this much: It’s all about the song.
GB: We're excited to bring the experience even closer to the people that are a part of this thing with us... I've just started taking on remote production and songwriting studio clients where I bring the studio to them and we help them get their song ideas realized and even help them produce it and make a record, the very same way I've been doing it with many artists for decades. Now the studio can come to you where you are most comfortable to create. As much as I love getting to watch people enjoy our music and songs, I also am thrilled watching people's own stories come to life in their own music, and I know how to help them get there.
How is the best way for people to find out about you both and where you will be performing?
RR: The best way to keep in contact with us is thru social media! Instagram, Facebook….and now of course Tik Tok. Our Williams Honor website has a direct link to all of our socials!
GB: People can inquire about all things by reaching out to us direct through my production company All Hour Recordings at gordon@allhour.net
