Bill Ward has released a song to the Internet today entitled “The Dark Half Hour”. Here’s a message from Bill about the release…

Hello everyone,

It’s been an extremely busy beginning of the New Year, and I would like to wish you all a happy, healthy, and rockin’ 2004. We’ve been hard at work in the studio completing mixes for “Beyond Aston,” and I wanted to share one of the new songs with you now. The song is titled “The Dark Half Hour,” and it’s about sexuality and sexual shame in part. This version is a close master mix, and therefore, will be different than the final master that will end up on the album. This version will only be available here as a free download. I hope you like the song.

I would also like to thank everyone who purchased a copy of “Straws” over the past few months to help raise money for several deserving charities. For those of you who have e-mailed to ask if you may still purchase a copy “Straws” — yes, the CDs are still available via the web site. I greatly appreciate all your generosity and your support of this project.

Hope you enjoy “The Dark Half Hour” and look for more information on “Beyond Aston.”

— Bill Ward

We know that you’ve been waiting for some information regarding the release of Bill’s third solo album entitled “Beyond Aston”. While we don’t have a release date for you for the CD at this time, we can bring you this news.

Bill Ward has decided to release a close master mix of one of the songs from the Beyond Aston album free online. The name of the song Bill will be releasing is “The Dark Half Hour”. More details as to exactly when you will be able to download this file along with further details regarding it’s release, Beyond Aston and other information will be available shortly here on this website. If you’d like to discuss this topic online, you can do so here on the Bill Ward Online forums.

In related news, the MP3 download of Straws which has been available here on billward.com will be withdrawn when The Dark Half Hour is made available, so if you still haven’t downloaded Straws, you should do so now.

Also, remember, Straws is a charity song – we urge you to make a donation to one of Bill’s charities and help out some needy folks. In exchange for your donation, Bill will send you one of his hand autographed Straws CD’s – more details on purchasing Straws is available by clicking on the cover art below.