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Most Loved Tracks4 users
Billy Goodman - Weststadt bells4 users
Billy Goodman - Going Home4 users
Billy Goodman - Dark Was The Night2 users
Billy Goodman - Kind Hearted Woman2 users
Billy Goodman - Kind Hearted Woman
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Billy Goodman was born in 1954 in Yonkers, New York, into a large Irish Catholic family that had originally immigrated in the 1920s. He started playing guitar at the age of 10 and was performing by age 13. Forced by the ever-helpful nuns to sing in the school choir with his brother Frank, he still maintained a strong interest in girls, rock'n roll and getting into trouble.
At age 18 he made his way to Manchester, England, playing folk clubs and learning reggae from the English and Jamaican locals until he finally got kicked out a year later when the immigration authorities discovered an error in his visa.
On returning to America in 1973 he hooked up in Pennsylvania with his brother Frank who had been writing songs in Mexico. They already sang like only brothers can and used Frank's original songs and Billy's newfound prowess on the bottleneck guitar to form the Goodman Brothers. This duo went on for a year until they found guitar legend Steve Kimock (Zero, Phil Lesh and Friends) in a local bar, and with their sister Kelley and a few friends started the cult favorite Goodman Brothers Band in Bucks County, Pa. With the help of their family they formed a commune, gathered a large regional following and then headed out in 1975 to Marin County, California, to make a demo with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart producing. Due to lack of funds the demo project fell through, but the brothers, fueled by Steve Kimock's incredible guitar playing, stayed on in California. The band played their progressive brand of original folk, latin and blues for seven exciting and turbulent years. Despite their popularity, however, they were never signed by a major record label. Perhaps it was due to their mixed style or just the way the music business was developing. In 1982 the band ultimately broke up and Billy sobered up to a world where the music had changed indeed.
About a year went by before Billy took on a job as a roadie for the Jefferson Starship. For the next six years he would be on the tour bus as a crew member, but also playing the bass on a few songs nightly. "Being on stage with Grace Slick would put the fear of God in you", he recalls. It was at the end of this tenure that Billy met Jorma Kaukonen. "I was a roadie for him and Jack Casady at the time", he remembers. "One day I cornered Jorma in the dressing room before a Jefferson Airplane reunion concert. I played two songs on my Gibson acoustic for him. Afterwards I thought he would throw me out of the room, but instead he asked ‘You wanna do a tour with me?’"
Billy did a tour of the East Coast with Jorma as a duo, trading songs and licks, and then a national tour with Electric Hot Tuna that included Jack Casady on bass. For this, Billy served as crew chief and stand-in electric slide guitarist.
After being encouraged to pursue a solo career in folk and blues by Jorma Kaukonen, Billy moved to New York City in 1989. He calls it ‘the belly of the beast’: "If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere." After opening a show for Dave Mason (Traffic), he was invited to sing and play the slide guitar on a national tour with the Dave Mason Band.
In 1991 he took a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, and persuaded his brother Frank to relocate one more time to Marin County and reunite with Steve Kimock. A band was formed, and for a year all new songs were performed to old and new friends in the land of earthquakes and sunshine. Due to Steve Kimock's prior commitments with the already renowned Bay Area group Zero, Frank and Billy spent the next two years performing as a duo, crystallizing the brothers' sound. It was at this time that they recorded Crooked Smile with Bobby Vega (Zero, KVHW) on bass.
It's not easy being brothers. In 1994 Billy emigrated once again to Europe to pursue a solo career in the footsteps of many before him. Hans Pohle, owner of TAXIM RECORDS near Bremen, Germany, took a liking to the CD and released it on his label in 1995. Crooked Smile was received by the German Rolling Stone with a four star review. This prompted brother Frank to join Billy in his new hometown, Heidelberg. The brothers spent two years performing many concerts throughout Europe and recorded the live CD Day or Night for TAXIM RECORDS, but in 1997 brother Frank returned to Nashville to further pursue his writing career.
Billy currently lives in Berlin. Germany, and continues the tradition of folk and blues. His bottleneck slide guitar, original songs and expressive singing are his trademark. He has been called "the missing link between Paul Simon and Muddy Waters" and has opened shows for such greats as Van Morrison, David Lindley, Leon Russell, Chris Whitley, John Hammond, Tom Paxton, and many others.
Billy has recorded eleven official CD's that are available on Itunes and all other popular download websites.
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10th Nov 2017
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