The result, Music Through Heartsongs: Songs Based on the Poems of Mattie T.J. Gilman decided to record Stepanek's poems in song form, and several Nashville pros were commissioned to set them to music. That theme became the basis for Gilman's third album when he met young poet and best-selling author Mattie Stepanek - a muscular dystrophy sufferer - during a TV appearance with Larry King. Gilman's proper second album, Dare to Dream, appeared in 2001 and hit number six it also spawned two minor chart hits in "She's My Girl" and "Elisabeth," the latter a sentimental ballad about a girl battling a terminal illness. The follow-up single, "Oklahoma," was also a Top 40 hit, and the holiday album Classic Christmas was rushed out by the end of 2000 it reached number four on the country charts, and featured a duet with fellow vocal prodigy Charlotte Church. Its title song, a spiritual plea against school violence, climbed into the Top 20 of the country charts, and the album itself hit number two and quickly went gold. Benson had Gilman make a demo tape, which wound up landing the young singer a deal with Epic.īacked by seasoned Nashville studio pros, Gilman completed his debut album, One Voice, in 2000. Gilman caught his big break when Asleep at the Wheel leader Ray Benson heard him sing and was impressed by the precocious power behind his vocals. He was booked as an opening act at several county fairs, including one with headliner Jo Dee Messina. He was singing before he started school and developed rapidly enough to start performing publicly at age seven.
Gilman was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, on May 24, 1988, and grew up in nearby Hope Valley. Out of the charts for nearly a decade, Gilman made a big comeback in 2016, courtesy of the reality show The Voice, and quickly regained much of the fame he had earned as a pre-teenager.
Only 11 years old when he notched his first hit single, Billy Gilman was the youngest performer ever to reach the Billboard country charts, breaking a record held since 1957 by Brenda Lee.
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