St. Charles band to play Country Thunder

“I actually started writing songs when I was 15,” said Brandon Williams, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for his country band Six String Crossing.

It’s not unusual for a songwriter to get his start in high school, when one’s identity and friendships can at times be uncertain or tumultuous. What’s less common, though, is for a songwriter to pen one of his current hit songs in the St. Charles East High School library.

“A lot of my first songs were actually written at my high school,” Williams said.

Nowadays, the 20-year-old writes his songs at work, but through the years the songs have had several things in common: writing each one takes Williams about 15 minutes, and most of them are about the personal experiences he and his bandmates, Tom Gleason and Jim Lynch, have had. Williams met future lead guitarist Gleason in fifth grade at Tri-City football, and the boys started playing guitar together two years later.

“We just kinda picked it up and started playing,” said Williams.

Their involvement in music drifted away for a few years, but the pair went back to playing in high school. Soon, rhythm guitarist Jim Lynch joined them. The three young men became known as Six String Crossing, named to pay homage to Williams’ father’s Oklahoma band, Low Water Crossing. They decided to post a few videos to YouTube to see how the Internet would receive their music. “It just blew up,” said Williams.

The band has played shows in the area, but its biggest gig yet is a four-hour set (noon-4 p.m.) at Country Thunder in Twin Lakes, Wis., on Friday. The festival is sold out. “Everything’s going to be run wireless,” said Williams. “It’s just going to be more professional.”

A bit of a fine-tuned image is part of what Williams hopes will get audience members to expect the best from Six String Crossing. He said that more often than not, because of the guys’ young age, “No one takes us seriously.”

Still, the band’s growing number of admirers suggests otherwise.

“Our fanbase is [ages] 16 through 60s,” Williams said. There is a fairly even split between men and women, and young fans are often responsible for getting the word out to different age groups, he said.

“A lot of our friends would tell their parents,” Williams said.

In terms of Williams’ own parents, his dad is one of his biggest musical influences.

“My dad used to go to Country Thunder every single year ... from before I was born ’til I was about 5 or 6,” said Williams. “[He said], ‘I never woulda thought that my kid [20 years later] would be playin’ here.’ ”

It’s safe to say that Six String Crossing’s fortune can only continue to grow. A week after its Country Thunder performance, the band is scheduled to meet with a Nashville producer.

“We’re just gonna try to get a full game plan, marketing-wise,” Williams said.

With the band’s stardom on the rise, it’s only natural that some fans might be a little too enthusiastic.

“We’ve had [intoxicated] people come up onstage and sing a song for a little bit,” said Williams. But through it all, he stays faithful to everyone who comes out to a show. “No fans are crazy, cause you wanna keep ’em, right?”