The Suttons have been singing and playing together almost from the moment they first met. First actually met. Strange story, that.
Bill and Brenda met online way back in the Jurassic period of 1985, before the days when everybody met online. Bill ran the 64-megafathom virtual hot tub on CompuServe’s Thrusady (yes, that’s how it’s spelled) night sf and fantasy forum, and Brenda ran the virtual drink droid. They talked weekly for many months. In all those conversations, neither ever mentioned music or singing or that they planned to attend BayFilk 2, a filkcon in the San Francisco area.
It’s all author Larry Niven‘s fault. That’s their story, and they’re sticking to it. Then filker Mercedes “Misty” Lackey used to play a game called “Make Larry Cry” in which she urged people to sing sad songs at Larry to rank their water-production. Misty pushed Bill into singing his song “Pilot’s Eyes” and…nothing. Not one teeny tiny teardrop. Larry left the room, and joined a hall circle where Brenda was singing. Desperate to find out why Larry didn’t cry, Bill joined them (where he learned that Larry didn’t cry because the song contained a easily-fixable science errors.)
When Brenda eventually stood up to retire for the night, Bill spotted her name tag with a “Hey, I know you!” She replied with “Hey, I know you, too!” He walked her to her room, gallantly carrying her guitar, and they said good night. They’ve been pretty much inseparable ever since, singing and performing, and organizing music conventions, and running Interfilk, and teaching lyric writing, and traveling the world and having a fine old time.
Awwwwwww….
Bill and Brenda Sutton have been Music Guests of Honor at nearly every filk con around the world and at plenty of other places too numerous to mention. The Suttons were inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame – 2001. In 2014 they were Music Guests of Honor for Detcon 1, the 2014 North American Science Fiction Convention.
You can find their music (published as Bill & Brenda Sutton) at Bandcamp – or check out their Irish music performed as Bed and Breakfast!
If Bill and Brenda are appearing at your convention or event, here is a 500-word bio suitable for program books or newspapers.