Billy Sherwood

An American multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and producer, Billy Sherwood has racked up hundreds of session and touring credits while serving as bandleader for World Trade, CIRCA:, and the Prog Collective. His ties to Yes stretch back to the late 1990s. Early in the new century he first filled the guitarist slot for Yes, after which he handled regular technical duties in both studio and live settings for the band and numerous other acts until 2015, when he returned to the lineup on bass following the death of Chris Squire. Beyond his Yes responsibilities, Sherwood stepped in as bassist for Asia in 2017 after John Wetton’s passing. He revived the Prog Collective following an eight-year pause to issue Worlds on Hold in 2021.

William Wyman Sherwood entered the world in 1965 and gravitated toward music from childhood, raised in a household steeped in performance; his father led a big band while his mother played drums. In his hometown of Las Vegas he launched his debut group, Lodgic, alongside brother Michael. The ensemble headed to Los Angeles in 1980 and eventually released the 1986 album Nomadic Sands. Soon afterward Sherwood launched a new venture without Michael under the name World Trade, which delivered a self-titled debut in 1989 that also featured former Lodgic member Guy Allison.

Sherwood contributed production, engineering, mixing, songwriting, and guest performance on Yes’ “The More We Live/Let Go” from the 1992 album Union, initiating a relationship that later yielded full membership. Across much of the 1990s he operated as producer, engineer, and session player, creating and overseeing numerous various-artists tribute projects such as Crossfire: A Salute to Stevie Ray and Dragon Attack: A Tribute to Queen. He also guided World Trade’s second album, Euphoria, to completion in 1995. In 1996 he produced and engineered both volumes of Yes’ live Keys to Ascension series. During 1997 Sherwood participated in the Key’s album The World Is Watching and joined Yes as guitarist for the recording of Open Your Eyes.

While active with Yes he also collaborated with his brother on Michael’s solo album Tangletown. The Ladder, Yes’ second release featuring Sherwood, appeared in 1999. He remained for the accompanying tour before departing, with one performance preserved on the House of Yes: Live from the House of Blues video and audio package. On his own he issued the solo debut The Big Peace.

Sherwood teamed with Yes bassist Chris Squire in 2000 for the album Conspiracy. By 2003 that project had adopted the name Conspiracy and delivered the follow-up The Unknown. Sherwood’s second solo album, No Comment, surfaced the same year. In 2007 he co-founded the Yes-related prog supergroup CIRCA: with Alan White on drums, Tony Kaye on keys, and guitarist Jimmy Haun. After the self-titled CIRCA: debut in 2008, Sherwood put out the solo album At the Speed of Life. Two further CIRCA: albums, HQ and Overflow, arrived in 2009. Late that year Sherwood assembled the short-lived collaborative quartet YOSO with Haun, former Toto vocalist Bobby Kimball, and ex-Flash keyboardist Tony Selvidge; the group released Elements on Frontiers in 2010 before disbanding after touring.

Sherwood redirected attention to CIRCA: and his solo output, issuing the fourth solo album Oneirology in late 2010 and And So On from CIRCA: a year later.

Sherwood established the Prog Collective in 2012 as an expansive collaborative effort in which he produced, performed on multiple instruments, and wrote most of the material, drawing an all-star cast of prog, jazz-fusion, and progressive-pop veterans. The self-titled 2012 debut on Purple Pyramid featured vocalists Annie Haslam, Alan Parsons, and Colin Moulding alongside keyboard contributions from Rick Wakeman, David Sancious, and Larry Fast, bass work from Squire, Tony Levin, and John Wetton, guitar from John Wesley, Steve Hillage, and Peter Banks, and violin by former Mahavishnu Orchestra member Jerry Goodman. That same year he assembled the all-instrumental jazz-rock collective the Fusion Syndicate with overlapping personnel and added guitarists Larry Coryell, Jimmy Haslip, and Steve Stevens, drummer Gavin Harrison, bassist Colin Edwin from the Porcupine Tree rhythm section, and reed and brass players including Nik Turner, Eric Marienthal, and Randy Brecker for a lone self-titled album at year’s end.

Epilogue, the Prog Collective’s 2013 follow-up, retained most of the prior roster while adding saxophonist Mel Collins and Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess; Sherwood gathered lead vocalists such as former Curved Air singer Sonja Kristina and Nektar’s Roye Albrighton, and William Shatner supplied a spoken-word cameo on the title-track closer. The next year Sherwood reciprocated by producing Shatner’s fourth album, Ponder the Mystery.

Following Chris Squire’s death from leukemia in 2015, Sherwood rejoined Yes as permanent bassist. In November he released his eighth solo album, Citizen, a concept record boasting guests including Squire, Geoff Downes, Parsons, and Steve Hackett. Months later he issued the entirely solo Divided by One. In 2016 Sherwood paired with returning Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye for Live in Japan and also released the solo Archived.

Sherwood next delivered the World Trade reunion album Unify, then toured the United States and Canada with Yes; the resulting double-album document Topographic Drama: Live Across America appeared via Rhino. He also appeared on Kimball’s solo release Mysterious Sessions. Yes subsequently mounted the luxury-liner outing Cruise to the Edge 2018, whose roster comprised Sherwood, guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White, keyboardists Geoff Downes and Tony Kaye, and vocalist Jon Davidson. Later that year Sherwood took part in Yesterday and Today: A 50th Anniversary Tribute to Yes. He spent most of 2019 on the road with both Yes and Asia, having been installed as Wetton’s permanent successor after the latter’s 2017 death. BMG issued Yes’ The Royal Affair Tour: Live in Las Vegas in 2020.

Sherwood had been developing a Prog Collective album intermittently for several years. Amid the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing quarantine he completed the third installment, working in-studio and remotely with a largely fresh lineup. Kristina returned, joined by vocalists Todd Rundgren, Joe Lynn Turner, Graham Bonnet, Geoff Tate, David Clayton-Thomas, and David Johansen. Guitarists Martin Barre, Jan Akkerman, and Roine Stolt joined returning members Hillage and Howe, while jazz violinist Shankar also participated. The program balanced Sherwood originals with covers of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill,” and the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin.” Three bonus tracks presented the Beatles’ “Penny Lane” (with an eerie, disembodied vocal by Wetton), Boston’s “More Than a Feeling,” and the Doors’ “People Are Strange.” Released by Cleopatra in February 2021 under the title Worlds on Hold to evoke the pandemic lockdown, the set marked the project’s return.