William R. Strickland has been played on NTS in shows including The Cosmic Principle w/ Nick Mitchell Maiato, featured first on 29 October 2017. Songs played include Romeo De La Route.

William Strickland is a living embodiment of the restless, salty, mad-genius eccentricity of what Santa Cruz used to be and sometimes still is. What Kinky Friedman is to East Texas, Strickland is or used to be to Santa Cruz.

Strickland, a gregarious and rotund singer-songwriter, hasn't been around much in recent years; he's lived for many years in Arizona. But in the 1970s, he was a regular presence on the local music scene, known for his wild Dionysian stage performances, bluesy chops and out-of-left-field compositions. Today, he's known mostly as the sandpaper-blues voice on KPIG's regular "Hog Call" feature: "I got a hog call for ya, baby …"

"We'll do some of the old stuff," said Strickland, 62, in a recent interview, grinning widely. "I haven't done many of those songs in years, 'The Last Hobo,' 'Magic Sailing Boat,' 'Must Be a Way to Be Healthy.'"

Possessed of a big, growly blues voice, Strickland has been all over KPIG 107.5 FM, not only as the voice of the "Hog Call," but as the singer of the theme song of Sunday morning's live-music show "Please Stand By" and as the singing voice on several locally produced radio ads including those for Scarborough Lumber, General Feed & Seed and, most famously, Jim Ludy's Automotive Maintenance.

Strickland's singing career goes back to the late 1960s when he recorded an album for the London label titled "William R. Strickland is Only the Name."

His love affair with Santa Cruz began shortly after that. As he tells the story, he visited the area from Los Angeles to talk his friend Jill Croston into returning to L.A. to pursue her own promising musical career. Croston later became Lacy J. Dalton and rose to country-music stardom.

Strickland was never the same after that trip, sticking around the area, becoming a regular at old haunts like the Club Zayante and the Town & Country, playing shoulder to shoulder with Lacy J. and Bob Brozman. He became known for a volatile, free-wheeling performance style that stressed spontaneity and wild flights of fancy. In a 1976 review in the Sentinel, writer Buz Bezore likened Strickland to "a kinky cross between Mark Twain and Lenny Bruce." Strickland kiddingly calls himself a mix of Willie Nelson and Pink Floyd.

Strickland says he's developed two distinct performance personalities over the years. "Wild Willie" is the persona he uses in bars and clubs where he'll break out well-known songs and parody well-known performers. Realizing his paying audience is usually revelers, often lubricated in alcohol, Wild Willie focuses on rambunctious playfulness.

The second personality is "William R. Strickland," a more serious artist, more likely to push his creative limits and take the audience to places it wasn't expecting to go.

A current example of Strickland's outlandish blend of music, storytelling and improv comedy is a stirring track called "The Wrong Man" on his not-yet-released CD "normal … almost." Against a spooky blues groove, Strickland tells a weirdly theatrical tale of a man who is attacked one night by a group of abductors convinced he is responsible for the world's ills.

More representative is the randy tune "My Baby Calls Me a Pig," a beery catalogue of pig puns. In the 1980s, he was known for hosting annual birthday bashes which soon became a local music tradition. These days, he says, he feels fortunate he's still performing.

"Back when I was a kid, you know that word 'entertainer?' Well, that was the worst word you could have called me. Now, I like it. In fact, there's nothing I like more."

Taken from an article published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel by Wallace Baine.