Bill Withers: Hip-Hop Artist in New York

About Bill Withers

Bill Withers is an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter whose spare, direct writing shaped a run of radio staples in the 1970s and early 1980s, including “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Use Me,” and “Lean on Me.” Raised in West Virginia, he arrived at music through lived experience more than formal training, drawing on gospel, blues, and everyday speech rhythms. His performances favor economy over ornament, with grooves built to hold the lyric in place. In New York City, his songbook is revisited at The Bitter End through the tribute project “Bill, Still: An Evening of Bill Withers Music.”