I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky

34 songs • 2 hours, 24 minutes • Released 09.15
All songs written by Bill Price ©2015 Mr. Quill Music (BMI)

Song Samples

About the Project

Inspired by a trip to the American West, Bill Price has created a thematic piece with two hours and twenty-three minutes of original music on two CDs.

The songs cover a wide variety of styles and instrumentation with the lyrics touching on the themes of time, home, grace, forgiveness, truth, childhood and paradox.

This deluxe package designed by Bill Price includes: Two CDs of music with 2 hours and 24 minutes of music, a 120-page journal, a 160-page book of poems, short stories and essays related to the themes in the songs, two oversized 36-page lyric booklets, two posters, six stickers, five postcards, three buttons and a bookmark. All items are housed in a custom box/folder with an exterior paper wrap.

Tracklist

Part One • Sun Up

1. Impossibly Blue (A Cosmic Stew)
2. Taking Aim #1
3. Time Is Up
4. Empty Out My Head
5. Get Me Gone
6. I Don’t Want to Come Home
7. Tempting
8. On the Dancer
9. Paradox Parade Part 1
10. Makes Me Feel Better
11. River of Return
12. What Can You Do?
13. Heaven Collapse
14. Our Lady of the Trampoline
15. Hands Off!
16. Out of the Shadows
17. Hey Mister

Part Two • Sun Down

1. Crazy Good/Crazy Bad
2. Post Rain Redemption
3. She’s Good Crazy
4. King of a Hill
5. Paradox Parade Part 2
6. Hands Off! (Reprise)
7. I Want to Hold Your Hand Revisited
8. Ran Out of Time
9. Taking Aim #2
10. Wild Saint
11. Postcards from Where the Wild Things Are
12. Any One of These
13. If You’re Gonna Be the Sun
14. What You Can Do
15. Time Is Up (Reprise)
16. Gratitude Is…
17. Late

Credits

Produced by Bill Price & Michael Graham
Recorded, mixed and mastered at The Lodge by Michael Graham

Nineteen musicians and singers performed on I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky

Garry Bole: Accordion, Wurlitzer Electric Piano, Hammond Organ, Vibraphone, Mandolin, Piano
Mark Buselli: Trumpet
Michael Clark: Pedal Steel Guitar, Dobro, Lap Steel Guitar
Robert Colcord: Trumpet, Muted Trumpet
Stasia Demos: Harmony & Lead Vocals
Rich Dole: Trombone
Michael Graham: Lap Percussion
Sarah Grain: Harmony & Lead Vocals
Paul Holdman: Electric Lead & Rhythm Guitar
Greg Imboden: Oboe
Troye Kinnett: Hammond Organ, Piano
Bill Mallers: Hammond Organ, Wurlitzer Electric Piano, Piano
Grover Parido: Cello
Bill Price: Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, 12-string Electric Guitar, 12-string Acoustic Guitar, Ebow Guitar, Ebow Slide Guitar, Piano, Bouzouki, Harmonium, Hammond Organ & Bass Pedals, Cittern, Mandotar, Tenor Recorder
Jamey Reid: Drums, Percussion, Tambourine, Auxiliary Snare, Lead Pipe/Steam Radiator, Spring Drum, Lap Percussion, Percussion Loop
Butch Rice: Harmony & Lead Vocals
Joshua Silbert: Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone
Jeff Stone: Bass, Fretless Bass, Upright Bass
Lizzy Street: Harmony Vocals

Reviews

By Pieter Wijnstekers, Heaven, Dutch magazine  07.16

9.5 out of 10 stars

Never heard of singer-songwriter and roots musician Bill Price from Indiana? He has been active in the music scene since 1981 in bands and duos that are not very well-known here. He became a solo recording artist in 2003 with the release of his solo debut, Bones & Apples.

During a trip through the Wild West in the United States in 2010, Price was confronted with tons of questions about his own existence and the world we all live in. This inspired him to create maybe the most ambitious box set ever put out by an artist. I Can’t Stop Looking At The Sky weighs more than 7.5 lbs, has two amazing CDs with almost 2.5 hours of music, a 120-page diary of the trip, a 160-page book containing stories, essays and poems, two beautiful large format books with stunning photos and all the lyrics, two posters, five postcards, two stickers, three buttons (even though the one with the 16-track sampler was even more special), a bookmark, a thank you note and a discount coupon for a future 5-track EP.

As amazing as all these goodies are, of course the music is what matters. And if you are expecting (as I was) a typical project of a head-in-the-clouds American folk hippie filled with good intentions, but without a firm sense of reality, you will be surprised by the tight, strong roots rock Price treats us to. No ethereal hippie folk, but a powerful and varied mix of all sorts of styles of roots singer-songwriter rock that falls somewhere between Tom Petty, Wilco and the early work of Elliott Murphy (who has a similar-sounding voice).

Even without all the additional material, this is an almost overpowering listening experience with some of the best roots music of this year. The album as a whole is so intense, that you can keep listening to it for at least the rest of the year and discover new elements, since every musical detail has been carefully thought out. The $45 price might be a little steep, but this edition is worth every penny.

Aims High and Succeeds

By Roger Bengtsson, Ung Tro,  Swedish magazine/website  04.16

4 out of 5 stars

Have you ever been on your back focusing on the open sky? Have you been outside the artificial light of a city, letting the starry sky become a foundation for reflection? Or have you ever so attentively followed the transformation of a cloud, that nothing else can distract you? Then you probably don’t want to stop watching—don’t want to stop being fascinated by the magnificent view.

In September 2010, the American musician and artist Bill Price took a long trip in the western United States—a journey of more than five thousand, two hundred miles through the States of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, South & North Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Inspired by the famous Lewis & Clark Expedition 1804-1806, where they mapped previously unknown areas west of the Mississippi River, he, likewise, kept a journal of his trip. The trip came to mean a lot to him. Originally, the journal was not meant for anyone but himself, but that changed when the inspiration for a new album came. The album project draws its title from a journal entry on the twenty-second day of travel: “At times, I could not stop looking at the sky. Seems like it held the very essence of every moment of each and every day.”

But it became so much more than just a regular album. Rather, a large project that took him four years to complete. A deluxe-package, the project features two CDs, the one hundred twenty-page diary, the supplementary book Digging Deeper Toward The Sky, posters, postcards, stickers, buttons/pins, and two very elaborate lyric booklets of forty pages each.

It is a long thematic journey where the music is in the foreground, but is framed by the additional pieces (writings and materials in the deluxe package) in a very good way. It is really interesting to take part in his journal that later resulted in the music. Even the one hundred and sixty-page book, Digging Deeper Toward The Sky, which is like a parallel journey, with short stories, essays, poems and lyrics to some yet unreleased tracks, works well. More often, I will still come back to the two, oversized lyric booklets with many beautiful photographs of the sky and interesting additional text/story running throughout. And of course the lyrics of the total of thirty-three songs themselves. Ambitious, well-written and with a continuous thread divided into a total of eleven dispatches (Dispatches being a kind of letter or report back home).

If you would select something that stands out (from the whole package), it would of course be the music. There is a total of two hours and twenty minutes of music. The music has the same ambitious approach where Bill Price exhibits a wide range, from quiet reflective songs to rock reminiscent of the Rolling Stones, with singer/songwriter, americana, country, folk, blues and a hint of jazz in between. A wide range of instruments are used, which in addition to guitar, bass, drums include: trumpet, trombone, saxophone, oboe, cello, Hammond, harmonium, mandolin and more.

I think the records work best in their entirety, but if I should have to pick some songs that I appreciate a little extra, I think the rocker “Heaven Collapse” with Tom Petty-like riffing and Stone-swinging horns and the pleasant cello in the beautiful King Of A Hill are worth mentioning. Even the beautiful guitar solo towards the end of “Hey Mister” is reminiscent of both Dire Straits and Pink Floyd. The big band swinging “She’s Crazy Good” is also excellent.

Should I mention something negative, harder covers and better glue on the box would have been preferable. I feel a bit sorry when a product is so well executed in general but needs better glue already on day one. With that said, I Can’t Stop Looking At The Sky is an exciting project with very good music for the money. Bill Price easily moves between genres without sprawling way out of control. He aims high and succeeds. Recommended.

Extensive works of Bill Price – I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky

By Pär Dahlerus, Uppsalanyheter, Swedish Newspaper  11.29.16

It really is an impressive and comprehensive works as musician, writer, poet and designer Bill Price has created. He has published the luxurious box I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky. It contains over 2 hours of very varied music on 2 CDs with 33 newly written original songs.

The box contains in addition to the newly written songs, a 120-page diary, and a 160-page book of “short stories”, essays and poems. For CDs are also two larger booklets with lyrics to all the songs and short stories related to the songs’ lyrics. In addition, the box contains much other stuff such as posters, stickers, “badges”, postcards and bookmarks and more.

To get inspiration for what initially was only supposed to be a new CD so Bill Price undertook a trip with small expeditions in the American states, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. The project grew to become this large and very comprehensive work. It took Bill Price full four years to complete the whole thing, which is actually a pretty short time considering how much material it contains. I also needed to give this material a lot and a long time to be able to put me into it, and the more time I have given it the more I appreciate it.

The music is very varied and encompasses many different styles and genres. It includes everything from soft ballads to rocking songs as well as jazz and a bit of world music. Bill Price has a warm and special voice that wins in the long run. His voice makes me among others to think of singers like Tom Petty and Al Stewart.

In the lyrics, he explores themes such as time, home, childhood, gratitude, forgiveness, truth, and various paradoxes. Often they are abstract and gives a lot of room for interpretation, which I also think is Bill Price’s intention.

The entire project is presented as a journey across time and space and the different songs are divided into eleven so-called “Dispatches” which I think is best translates as expeditions in this case. That said started the project with Bill Price in 2010 embarked on an expedition to travel in the wake of the identified passengers leaving Lewis & Clark’s famous expeditions from 1804 to 1806. Bill Price started to keep a diary at first only for their own notes.

Later, he decided to publish it as the travel diary as part of the work and to share their experiences. In the book Digging Deeper Toward the Sky containing short stories, essays and poems, and Bill Price call for a parallel journey to the music, he develops the different themes in which he describes the music.

A total of nineteen musicians were involved in the music and twelve photographers have contributed beautiful images of the sky. I find new angles and revelations, the more I listen, read and think about. It is a journey in time and space for the soul and the senses. The sky that we all look up to the daily has no boundaries and belongs to no one, or all of us. The sun rises and the sun sets over and over again across the sky.

We can all see it continue day after day and that we all have in common. I can not better finish this review than with Bill Price’s own words, “I could not stop looking at the sky. Seems like it held the very essence of every moment of each and every day”.

Central Alternative Country, Belgian magazine/website  04.16

4 out of 5 stars = very good indeed!

Talk about an ambitious project! In just four years, the American songwriter Bill Price completed I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky. With one of the most oversized deluxe packaging sets that we’ve ever seen, and with two hours and twenty-three minutes of original music, you really get your money’s worth! Two CDs, a 120-page journal from the trip that was the main inspiration for the songs, two lavish, large 40-page textbooks, the 160-page companion book Digging Deeper Toward the Sky, a collection of short stories, essays and poems, along with a set of mini-posters, postcards, stickers, buttons and a bookmark – in short, I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky is a must-have!

But naturally our first interest is in the music. And after a closer listen, it certainly turned out well. Nicely varied, with a textual plane for nearly the entire human existence. Personal and universal at the same time. We liked it from the very start. With a summery feel, introduced by a funky guitar and the foundation of “Empty Out My Head” to the late night jazz of “Get Me Gone” to the flamboyant pop-roots roar of “I Don’t Want To Come Home,” from a righteous world for a long life in the subdued tone of the pop beauty On The Dancer enhanced with a blissful bit of accordion, “Makes Me Feel Better” reminds us quite a bit of Paul Simon in the Graceland years – Yet such a radio-friendly song! — to the perfectly fitting “What Can You Do?” of the witty roots rocker Heaven Collapse to the typical West Coast pop of “Our Lady of the Trampoline” to the bouncing drive of “Out of the Shadows,” from the outstanding Cajun tune “Crazy Good/Crazy Bad” to the catchy pop of “Post Rain Redemption” and similarly catchy rock of “She’s Good Crazy” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand Revisited” to the sweet ballad Wild Saint and others, there is certainly no shortage of cool songs.

This certainly deserves our recommendation, promoted in whole as a “a musical, literary and design odyssey.”

The Journey Behind Writer and Musician Bill Price’s I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky.

Price Goes West

By Seth Johnson, NUVO, Indianapolis Newsweekly  11.30.16

It was the fall of 2010, and Indy artist Bill Price found himself in the midst of an introspective excursion out west exploring some of his favorite places in the country.

One day while driving up from Missoula, Montana, along the Flathead Valley, the self-described “Lewis and Clark geek” found himself trapped in a perilous staring match with the western sky.

“I kept looking at the sky, and was like, ‘Oh, my God. That’s just incredible,’ and then [I realize] I’m drifting off the highway,” Price recalls. “I couldn’t take my eyes off of it, and I literally did say out loud, ‘I can’t stop looking at the sky,’ out of frustration. Finally, I just said, ‘Okay, people die this way. I’ve gotta stop. I just can’t look over there anymore.’”

This memory is at the heart of Price’s latest project, appropriately titled I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky. An expansive, multidisciplinary effort, I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky consists of two CDs of music, a 120-page journal, a 160-page book of poems, short stories and essays, two 36-page oversized lyric booklets and more.

A native of Indianapolis, Price grew up on the city’s west side, where he attended Ben Davis High School. During junior high, Price discovered his love for music, although he wouldn’t seriously pursue it for many years. Instead he focused on graphic design work.

“I went to the University of Cincinnati and got a degree in graphic design, so my bread and butter is really graphic design,” he says. Eventually, however, he would begin to write songs, both on his own and in a group with local blues veteran Gordon Bonham called The Brains Behind Pa.

“When I was in high school, everybody that liked what then was called ‘commercial art’ wanted to design album covers,” says the 55-year-old Price. “So I joke with people that I had to start my own band so that I could design my own album covers.”

Never before had Price pursued anything as expansive as I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky. The project is a culmination of his many artistic passions, and it’s something that just happened organically, he explains. “As I got into recording the album, I thought, ‘It’d be cool to do some more writing,’ and then the book evolved,” says Price. In an effort to keep the lyrics open-ended, he decided to publish his journal from the trip as well, also including that in the I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky package.

“I thought, ‘I don’t really want to talk about what these songs are about, even though people love that,’” he says. “The lyrics are somewhat open-ended, and I would just like people to go on their own journey. So I thought, ‘If they really wanna know, I should include this journal. It’s not very direct, but it would give them a general sense of where all this came from.’”

Within the music and writings, Price explains that one overarching theme is time. This, in particular, has a lot to do with where he was mentally when he traveled out west. “My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, so that was a seven or eight year process,” he remembers. “She passed away, and my father passed away. So I thought, ‘I really need a change, both geographically and mentally.’”

With this in mind, he decided to take a trip out west — making a special point to stop at both the Black Hills and Glacier National Park.

“I didn’t take a camera, I didn’t take a guitar, and I didn’t listen to any music,” he remembers. “I just rolled down the windows and drove through the Great Plains.” After spending so much time with the serene scenes that surrounded him, Price eventually rediscovered his inner child, rekindling an overwhelming excitement that he hadn’t had in some time. “On that trip, I was as alive as I have ever been in my entire life,” he says. “[I’ve realized] that sort of enthusiasm about being alive needs to be a bigger part of my life.”

In addition to the lessons he learned through his trip, Price is also thankful for the fact that it prompted I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky, of course. “It’s what I wanted to do, and it basically turned out how I envisioned it,” says Price.

By Rachel Mindell, Festival Director, Montana Book Festival  09.16

Bill Price was a fantastic addition to the 2016 Montana Book Festival. His talented integration of writing, music and imagery is a powerful and unique tribute to the American west – so much to enjoy!

By David Hintz, Folkword, German magazine/website  07.16

Before I hear the first note, I compliment Bill Price on taking a bold approach with this release. There are 33 songs running over two hours that are accompanied with a 120 page travel journal and 160 page book of short stories, along with other artistic items. I cannot judge the whole release as I “only” have a 16-song sampler to review. But from that alone, it is easy to see how the literature included in the package would be worth a read. Bill Price has some of the better lyrical phrasing I have heard recently. His topics are interesting and there are even a few songs about writing, so this is very arts oriented throughout. Song-wise, this is a brisk effort with folk-rock and even some lounge-jazz tossed in with a rock sound that is most dominant. It moves with a brisk sense of fun and adventure, so this is something very interesting by design, whose execution appears to live up to the bold idea.

By Lambert Smits, Keys and Chords, Belgian magazine/website  04.16

4 out of 5 stars

Bill Price is a Dylan-inspired American singer/songwriter who debuted in 2000 with the album Bones & Apples. With explorers Lewis & Clark as great examples, Price traveled to the American West. This trip brought out in him feelings associated with the universal human experiences of time, place and childhood. The trip also changed his thinking and had a profound affect. Price discovered and rediscovered the essence of life. After four years of intense work and six years after his acoustic With The Eye of a Skeptic & a Few Other Likely Stories, he released his sixth album, I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky.

For clarity, we should briefly mention that we did not receive the full album. The sampler we received contains only 16 songs. The full I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky, (A Journey to Eleven Dispatches as the musical is presented), contains 33 original songs, accounting for more than 2 hours and 20 minutes of music. Moreover, this deluxe edition is complemented with Bill’s diary of 120 pages, a 160-page book with short stories, poems and essays and two, oversized booklets with the lyrics. But we must do with the sampler. For I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky, Bill also made use of an electric band. This not only creates more possibilities than a purely acoustic setting with respect to the sound palette, but also provides more diversity. The songs range from folk to Americana, and of course diving than tattered soul, rock, country, rhythm and blues and cajun on.

As a teenager, Price was a huge fan of the Beatles and you can hear that in the rhythms and different moods of the songs. To take a trip like Price did and want to express that musically, you should not only be a good observer, but you must also possess the talent to put the experience to music. When additionally, you can merge homogeneously, electric and acoustic instruments, you get a fantastic sound. And here he succeeds with flying colors. A good example is “Crazy Good/Crazy Bad” where the accordion is not clashing with the electric instruments, but it is just incorporated.

Again, because our copy is only a sampler, it is difficult to provide a picture of the entire album. But what we hear here makes us at any rate favorable.

By Declan Culliton, Lonesome Highway, Irish Magazine/website  06.20.16

Inspired by the explorers Lewis and Clark, Bill Price took a lengthy trip around America and over a four year period wrote and recorded this extremely ambitious and hugely rewarding work. The journey covered over five thousand miles across the states of Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. His original intention was to compile a personal journal but the journey subsequently inspired him to put much of his thoughts and experiences to music. The end product includes two hours and twenty minutes of music, a one hundred and twenty page journal, a one hundred and sixty page book of essays and poems, posters and stickers. The album is Prices’ sixth release since his debut album in 2001.

This review is based on a sixteen track sampler of music from the venture. The material featured on the album is hugely enjoyable and quite varied. “I Don’t Want to Come Home” is driving pacey rock, Makes Me Feel Better would sit proudly on Paul Simon’s Graceland while “Heaven Collapse” is all Tom Petty with predictable, yet wonderful, guitar riffs. If Simon, Petty and Jonathan Richman type 70’s rock is your cuppa, based on this sampler, you will embrace this enterprising product with open arms.

Eric Van Domburg Scipio, Editor, Heaven, Dutch magazine  04.16

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the big new batch of albums. Working my way through them at the moment, although I must say, I immediately started with the intriguing (and already very generous) Bill Price sampler. Although I’d not heard of him before, I was very surprised by the high quality and variety of the music on offer on I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky, and haven’t been able to put it down yet to progress to the other stuff! It could well be the best thing we ever received via Hemifran.

Cheers!

– Eric

By Mihály Czékus, Gondola, Hungarian magazine/website  04.16

A beautifully crafted and sophisticated album released by the American musician Bill Price who is a big Bob Dylan fan. The I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky album took four years of preparation with an outcome of almost two and a half hours of recorded material and more than 200 pages of written material (a journal and book of short stories, essays and poems). The two discs of the deluxe package offer bountiful musical material for American folk music fans. Since 2001, this is his sixth album. The number of albums released within the last fifteen years reveal Price’s inclination and preference for live shows and is reflected in the short stories generated during his journeys and brought to life in his songs. The new album contains 33 songs, many of them being radio-friendly and aired frequently on American radio stations—songs such as “Empty Out My Head,” “On the Dancer,” “Makes Me Feel Better” and “Crazy Good/ Crazy Bad.”

Diane Michaels, DJ, KPND  09.15

I am looking forward to spending a few hours, a few days, a few weeks, maybe a lifetime, taking a journey with this wonderful package of pictures, words and music from Bill Price called I Can’t Stop Looking At the Sky.

By Valsam, Rootstime, Belgian magazine/website  04.16

Originally from Indiana Bill Price is a devil-do-all. He composes music and lyrics for songs. He sings, plays all kinds of instruments, he’s a graphic artist and a writer of books. It might be inferred from the fact that he releases his records with very long intervals, that he leads a busy life.

In 2004 he debuted on record with the album Bones & Apples. Five years later in 2009, he followed up with the acoustic folk-rock album With the Eye of a Skeptic. Then seven long years of deafening silence around Bill Price, but in the year 2016 he dives back in the spotlight with his new album I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky.

It has actually become an impressive concept, consisting of a double album with 33 original songs that will entertain for not less than 143 minutes. In the deluxe version, he adds in a 120-page diary, a 160-page book Digging Deeper Towards The Sky with short stories, essays and poems, two books with 40 pages of lyrics, 2 mini posters, five postcards, 3 buttons, two stickers, a bookmark and a discount coupon of $ 5 for the purchase of the follow-up five-track EP also titled Digging Deeper Towards the Sky.

Bill Price has spent four years of his life on this project and hopes that he can reach many people with his work. We will be restricted to an analysis of only some of the songs on I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky since we received a just sampler with 16 songs in the Rootstime mailbox.

The musicians are mainly his Band of Skeptics consisting of guitarist Paul Holdman, cello player Grover Parido, bassist Jeff Stone and drummer Jamey Reid. Bill Price sings and plays acoustic guitar on this album, which starts with a very nice track “Empty Out My Head” – hot. The subsequent “Get Me Gone” has a jazzy melody and spoken word lyrics.

Although the album track by track consists of enjoyable songs, there are once again some favorite tracks where we have a separate entry in the house: the swinging “On the Dancer,” the Cajun song driven by accordion “Makes Me Feel Better,” the Tom Petty-like rock song “Heaven Collapse,” “Our Lady On the Trampoline” (see video) and the melodic, strongly sung ballad “Wild Saint.”

If you have money, you can consider buying the deluxe version, but even this 16-track sampler has shown ample musical enjoyment. In any case, Bill Price deserves all our respect for the impressive job he has done in the past four years for the creation of this excellent album.

Lots of respect for the tremendous job that Bill Price has delivered during the last 4 years to create his ‘work of life’ in the concept album I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky. You can buy it in a deluxe version, consisting of 2 cd’s, a personal journal, an extensive companion book, lyrics booklets, posters, postcards, buttons, stickers, bookmark and a $5 rebate coupon.

By Kenneth Hammargren, Värmlands Folkblad, Swedish newspaper  04.16

4 out of 5 stars

I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky is the title of the American singer-songwriter and author Bill Price’s most recent work. This music project, which took four years to produce is divided into eleven acts on a double-CD, A Journey in Eleven Dispatches, Part One (Sun Up) and Part Two (Sun Down).

Just over two hours of music where Americana meets the blues, rock and jazz in a kind of folk opera-packaging, all original. A number of musicians and singers back up Price’s lead vocals, and the songs succeed each other in a medley format.

Added to this is the accompanying 120-page journal, 160-page book of poems, short stories and essays, which provides an overall picture of Price’s own thoughts, feelings and experiences during his travels across the American continent. Add to that, postcards, beautiful photographs, posters and buttons, all in a giant deluxe packaging. Bill Price has done something new experimentally in a format of a rare kind.

By Mike Penard, Radio ISA (French radio)  04.16

A rich and very interesting musical and lyrical journey offered by a a very creative artist… clearly unique… …such a good package really deserves a MERCI !

By Cis van Looy, Written in Music, Belgian Magazine/Website  03.16

3.5 out of 5 stars

Bill Price, a songwriter, musician, author and graphic artist, emanating from Indiana, knows how to write a song and perform. That was clearly shown on Bones & Apples and With The Eye Of A Skeptic. Seven years later, he has released a sequel, I Can’t Stop Looking At The Sky. However, Price has not been idle. Nearly four years Price worked on the realization of an ambitious idea which brought together all of the artistic disciplines that he practices. There is a double CD with over 143 minutes of music, composed and performed by Price. There is also a journal of personal reflections on the sources of inspiration and an even larger book, Digging Deeper Toward To The Sky of short stories, essays and poetry. Two beautiful and artistic lyric booklets and posters, self-designed postcards and ephemera complement the project. Price created a musical, literary, visual odyssey that provides a good time.

Inspired by the great expedition that explorers Lewis & Clark undertook in the early nineteenth century, Price traveled across the West in the footsteps of the explorers. A truly titanic work for an independent artist. The extensive luxury package is obviously not cheap. The repertoire oscillates between rock, and Americana country/folk with stories inspired by Price’s recent wanderings.

Robert Steven Silverstein, mwe3.com 06.16

In 2015 singer-songwriter/guitarist Bill Price released his double CD masterpiece, I Can’t Stop Looking At The Sky. The double CD set comes with two musical journals and extensive lyric books and the album was also released as a single CD version sampler that draws upon various tracks that gives the listener a good idea of the music Bill Price composes. Based in Indiana, Bill Price’s Americana rock sounds influenced by Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne and String Cheese Orchestra, for example.

Produced by Bill and Michael Graham, I Can’t Stop Looking At The Sky is being heralded as a major thematic work that speaks to the universal experiences of time, home, place, childhood, forgiveness, grace and paradox. Interviewed by mwe3.com about the extensive research and experiences that went into creating his double album masterpiece, Bill Price synopsized, “In 2010, I was in need of a big break. I hadn’t been anywhere for a long while and so I decided to return to my two favorite places: The Black Hills in South Dakota and Glacier National Park in Northwest Montana. Having recently become a fan of Lewis & Clark, I decided to stop at some of their historic locations and, like them, keep a journal.

After a little over three weeks, I came back with a lot of inspiration about life. Some of the ideas were new and some were not. But even the older ideas, I was reenergized about. I had planned to return and record my next album. By adjusting some lyrics and writing some new songs, I thought that the project could be a pretty cool thematic piece. It grew into two CDs with 34 tracks and over two hours and twenty minutes of music.

The package then got pretty elaborate, due to my graphic design background. The idea evolved in its own way—kind of asking to be done—in a rather organic fashion.” With Bill handling all the composing and lead vocals, a number of quite talented musicians also appear backing up his wide-screen pop-rock vision. One of the most meticulously packaged, produced and recorded double albums of the decade, I Can’t Stop Looking At The Sky is a well-rounded example of Americana pop-rock at its best. www.BillPrice.info

Blue Desert, Danish magazine/website  04.16

“It’s all right with me if you want to go home, it’s all right with me, I can sink on my own, but I will be the last refugee”. So goes the chorus of singer-songwriter Bill Price’s final song, “The Last Refugee,” written for and connected to his ambitious I Can’t Stop Looking At The Sky musical, literary and design odyssey. He says it sums up not only the project, but also what it’s like to be a creative person with an artistic vision that only he can clearly see. Four years in the making, I Can’t Stop Looking At The Sky is over 2 hours and 20 minutes of original music housed in a gorgeous, deluxe package that includes a 120-page journal, a 160-page book of short stories, essays and poems, two oversized, extensive lyric booklets, plus posters, buttons, postcards and stickers, all designed by Price.

The music is varied and rich with different textures, instruments and rhythms. Presented as a journey, this thematic work speaks to universal human experiences of time, home, place, childhood, forgiveness, grace and paradox. Price claims that at this point in his life, it simply adds up to his worldview. While the themes may be broad, what makes the piece unique and more specific is the story behind it. Inspired partially by explorers Lewis & Clark, Price took a lengthy trip to the American West. “It was life-changing, a real journey on several levels. I have not been the same since”, he says. “The ideas and inspiration from both the physical and internal journey propelled this project forward, and it seemed to take on a life of its own”. More information at Hemifran.

By Christian Labonne, The Cry of the Coyote, French Magazine  09.16

The 14 songs reviewed below are from a sampler used to promote the complete set which is composed of 33 songs, 2 hours 20 minutes of music, two books of more than 100 pages, some postcards, stickers and other items. You might wonder if he has gone too far, but Bill, no doubt, wanted to make an impression for his 6th CD. He performs in different formats: solo, duets, trios and full bands.

Price has the air of a kindly grandfather, à la John McEuen with his beard and little hat. The album project took him four years to complete. According to his bio, the music was inspired by a trip that was a spiritual or transcendental experience.

You find yourself in a place between rock, ballad, blues and R&B. His voice is pleasant, young and sincere so that the themes of this good man speak for him: love, sharing, solitude, friendship. He even brings up the Paris attacks which shows his interest for France (for our country)

By Borje Holmen, New Discs, Swedish magazine  10.10.17

3.5 out of 5 stars

Bill Price claims to be a creative person with artistic visions. I Can’t Stop Looking at the Sky is his 6th release in the line of albums and EPs.

Bill, a singer-songwriter, at times collaborates with bluesman Gordon Bonham who, like Bill Price, is inspired by Bob Dylan. Bill usually distances his graphic design from his music and vice versa, but not on this project.

When I hear Bill Price, I think about Paul Simon and of course David Byrne and his Talking Heads with their exuberant fancy of different kinds of music when they go beyond the normal. This makes it not boring but interesting and requires multiple listenings. The disc is filled with surprises, making it hard for one song to stand out.

Folker, German magazine/website 04.16

Bill Price is a classic songwriter in the style of Bruce Cockburn, who elaborately arranges his songs. Only late in his life, did Price (2001) decide to release his first album. This is reflected in the maturity of his songs, which are inspired by Bob Dylan and Dylan’s influences.