Rolling Stone describe him as "an addictive slice of ultra lo fi soul folk" and NME believe that he possesses "what is easily one of the most stunning voices in music today".

Complimenting his soulful croon, Willis Earl Beal writes immediately arresting, warm, ernest and moving music. Having lived in Chicago his entire life, in 2007 at the age of 27 Beal moved to Albuquerque without a plan and lived on the streets while trying to land a job. He found that singing helped him cope while sleeping rough, and when he eventually secured work at a motel, he saw the late night shifts as an opportune time to create his music using a cassette-based karaoke machine and a $20 microphone. He would scatter hand drawn flyers around town, listing his phone number and address along with the message "My name is Willis Earl Beal. Call me and I'll sing you a song. Write to me and I'll draw you a picture."

In 2009, Found Magazine discovered one of the flyers and featured it on their cover along with an in depth 4 page interview, resulting in Beal being contacted directly by over 100 members of the public. He quickly gained media attention through his grassroots self-promotion, and his debut album Acousmatic Sourcery was released in early 2012 through XL Recordings, accompanied by a self-illustrated video for the first single 'Evening's Kiss'.

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