Some may know Bill McCrory when he takes the stage at local musician venues with his stage partner Frank Wyzyany, known as Billy and “The Kid.”
“It’s kind of a joke that he is my kid, but he’s not really. It’s catchy,” McCrory said. In late July, McCrory finally got his chance to jam on the coveted Hop Lot stage, where he has also worked part-time for the past few years.
McCrory’s evolution of music started as a kid in junior high school bands before taking some time off and playing again when he was 30-years-old. He traveled all over Michigan and Chicago and then moved from being a solo act to a duo. He also switched from the electric guitar to an acoustic one.
Primarily, Billy and the Kid play bluegrass, country, rock, and originals with reggae and blues mixed in.
“Frank Wyzyany is a gifted, talented musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. That really brings a lot of energy into the show,” McCrory said. “I was playing some open mics in the area, and we met at the Workshop Brewery in Traverse. Then he approached me about collaborating. So we’ve been together for about two and a half years now.”
McCrory says Leelanau is a lot different than the Chicago music scene in terms of age, which fits their style of music well with older bluegrass hits.
McCrory will be rocking the stage at Hop Lot once again on Monday at 5 p.m.
Last time he got on stage, the whole crew at Hop Lot made T-shirts for the bands organized by Allie Trillet.
McCrory has three part-time jobs as a semi-retiree, including being a server at Hop Lot, working at the Homestead ski resort, and being a musician in the summer. He also leads a church service at St. Peter’s in Leland, singing and playing guitar for the Celtic service on Saturdays at 5 p.m.
One of the reasons he went to work there was the chance to play on the stage, and after a couple of years of coercing, he finally got on stage.
“I think meeting people in a new location is a challenge at any age. But when you have some type of commonality, then that gives you a bridge to getting to know somebody,” he said. “I’ve gotten to know quite a number of people up here in the last couple of years, and it’s very rewarding to do that.”
McCrory became interested in the area when his parents brought him up north to learn how to ski during one of the first years Sugar Loaf was open in 1964.
“I came up here and I was just so enthralled with everything. I was so overwhelmed with the beauty. Later in my life, I brought my girlfriend, who is now my wife, Leslie, up here, and we did an open water swim in Lake Leelanau,” McCrory said.
They finally moved from Chicago to Leelanau in 2020. Right before COVID, they had plans to build their Leland home and timed it perfectly.
McCrory remembers playing tennis at Hancock Park before moving here full-time, playing doubles matches on the tennis courts with his dad. Sometimes the balls would launch over the fence into the vacant lot where he and his wife, Leslie, now live.
McCrory is originally from metro Detroit and later went to Michigan State University.
After college, he spent some time in the ski industry out west and then came back to Chicago. For most of his career, McCrory was in food service management and majored in hotel restaurant management at MSU. He worked for a variety of companies that ran food service operations all over the Chicago area.
Bill and Leslie met working for the same company in Chicago. He actually had to cover for her while she went on vacation, and when she returned, the sparks flew. They were married in 1990 after four years of dating, and they have two kids, aged 24 and 28-yearsold.
“The thing about marriage is that you start out at one point, and your life changes. The way the two of you evolve together is the critical thing or the important thing. We had this shared vision that we wanted to live up here and enjoy the this area with our friends and family and be a part of this,” McCrory said. “You go through your life, and you’re spending all this time with these kids, and they get to a point, and then they’re going to go out on their own. I was distraught that they left, and I didn’t know what to do. So I did write a song. It’s called ‘Find Your Own Way’ which is about kids growing up and then going off on their own.”
