Billy Goodman: NEWS

Just got a call from Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane. He's playing at McCabe's tonight in Santa Monica. I'm gonna head down there now to meet him. This guy is an American original. He's seen it all and lives to tell the tale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Airplane http://hottuna.com/ http://www.mccabes.com/condata.html

After many years of hearing about it, I e-mailed some music files to a friend 5,000 miles away. I asked him to play a little piano alongside it and mail the solo piano track back to me. Well, we must have done something right because low and behold after I imported his file into my music software it all lined up and I was able to hear and mix it alongside my guitar and vocal track. This is pretty astounding to a guy who grew up in the 1960s and will make a huge difference in my life.

I love fridays. It's a throwback from school days. Fridays and snow days. I always liked them. Looking forward to something is usually more exciting and rewarding than receiving it. I feel a little guilty in this sunny Los Angeles weather. Everyone I talk to is either cooped up in their house while it rains or waiting on imminent snowfall. I'm just going to tough it out. Yesterday I had Mexican food at Joey's Cafe again. A man has got to eat after all. On a work note, I've been recording daily and am mixing down 11 tunes today that I recorded over the last few weeks. I'll give them a listen to and then decide what overdubs I want to put on.

What an incredible day it's been so far. People are getting saved, healed, financial blessings right in front of my eyes and it's only 7 pm ! I'm going to go upstairs right now, set up a mobile studio and give Him the glory. Oh, and I had the chili at Barney's Beanery on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood this afternoon. Marilyn Monroe used to go in there on her lunch break while filming and do the same. Now that's some good chili.

http://barneysbeanery.com/locations/westhollywood.php

I made it in to Los Angeles in one piece. The airline misplaced my guitars in New York but luckily they arrived safely a few hours later. I won't mention that it's 75 degrees with a perfectly clear sky. That would be cruel.

Well, here we are. 2012. If I'd known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself. All kidding aside, I wish everybody a super blessed year. God is good. All the time. It's hard to believe sometimes but that's why they call it faith.
I know there's been a lot of struggles for a lot of good people in 2011. Please keep the faith the best you can and I will too.
I fly to Los Angeles on Wednesday so I'll be writing all about it soon. God bless you all. Happy New Year. We all know it's going to be a wild one.

Heres a short CNN video about my buddy Joe Lewis's homeless ministry in Heidelberg.
My old Gibson and I make a small cameo appearance.

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-721600

I want to wish everybody a beautiful holiday season. I do pray that we'll all be blessed and that many of our dreams will come true in 2012.

Wow. It's already December 16th ! Christmas is just around the corner. The weather is so mild here in Central Europe, that I haven't even noticed it was really winter. When you hail from Philadelphia, you know what winter is. But everything is cool. It's steady as she goes, staying grateful for all the large and small blessings in my life. I played for the Heidelberg homeless shelter last week. That's always a trip. Speaking of trips, I got some exciting news from America about some upcoming shows that I'll be announcing soon. I'm recording a new CD here in Heidelberg, the Singer-Songwriter Wednesday nights at the Prinz Friedrich are up and running. Plenty to be thankful for now that 2012 is rapidly approaching.

Here's a link for my artist page at Itunes. There's 70 songs available there for digital download.

http://itunes.apple.com/en/artist/billy-goodman/id6272396

Also, here's a link for the "Big Red Barn Sessions" with Steve Kimock

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/big-red-barn-sessions/id289844008

If you type in "Crooked Smile" and Goodman Brothers in the search engine of Itunes, it will show up.

And that's just Itunes. If you shop for downloads elswhere, you'll find all the tunes through the search engines of:

Amazon MP3, Google Music, eMusic, Rhapsody, Napster, MySpace Music, Spotify, Nokia, Last.fm and many others.

I just returned from a few shows in the Austrian Alps. I played at a big chalet in a picturesque village called Damuels. Both shows went really well. It was a five hour drive home back to Heidelberg but a smooth ride.

The recent show that Steve Kimock and I did at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem, Pa. is available for download.
It was a special night.

http://www.livedownloads.com/live-music/0,6924/Steve-Kimock---Billy-Goodman-mp3-flac-download-9-23-2011-Godfrey-Daniels-Bethlehem-PA.html

I got this e-mail today. I have to admit I don't remember meeting Jerry but you never know who's life you're going to influence. Trippy stuff.

Hello Billy,
I came came across some of your youtube videos and wanted to reach out to you. I doubt you will remember me but here goes!
I was a student/stage hand when you came through Trenton State College (New Jersey) with Jorma in the late 80's. You were very gracious to me and even let me come out to a second gig in Asbury Park when you were with Hot Tuna. I bought your book and learned a lot from it, but more so from your advice. You eventually hooked me up with Lonny Mondell who was also very, gracious to me. In 1991 I went on tour with The Allman Brothers Band as a lighting tech(my first tour, amazing, COMPLETELY skipped van tours, I might be the only one EVER) , Travis Tritt as set carpenter, Leann Rimes as a stage manager, Interpol as production manager, and The Pretenders, Tenacious D, The Mars Volta, Pete Yorn, The Fleet Foxes, and Weezer (and many others) and a guitar tech. I've been everywhere I've could hope to go in the world and had a great career in no small part thanks to your kindness and example. I always pass that same kindness on to anyone who asks me about our career.
I hope you are doing well, glad you are still making music, and hope to cross paths sometime in the future.
All the best, and thanks a TON!

Jerry Riccardi

The twins and I broke out the electric guitars last night at the Prinz Friedrich in the old town. The students are starting to roll back in so we're gonna start cranking it up for the fall and winter season. Speaking of cranking it up, I'll be playing drums for the boys next Thursday night at Billy's Blues in Heidelberg. We're making a guest appearance at Jason Wright's monthly rave-up.

http://www.billyblues.de/
http://used-theband.blogspot.com/

I wish to extend my condolences to the family and friends of Siggi Oehmig. Siggi just fell down and died last week after a gig at the age of 45. He'll definitely be missed. He played great bass and was a very cool guy. Rest in Peace Siggi.

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/10563628-siggi-oehmig-a-wonderful-instrumentalist-remembered

I had a great day in New York City last week. I spent the day with an old friend banging around Greenwich Village in the sunshine. Today I'm back in Germany. I'm a little jet lagged from all the running around. I fell asleep at the library for a half hour today. That was sweet. I must have looked good.

Los Angeles. What a trip. First of all, the weather. Unbelievable. I'm outside after nine at night in a bathing suit and a t-shirt. Warm breeze. I forgot how wonderful the weather is in Southern California. Then there's the Mexican food. I had beef and pork tacos this afternoon at Pinches on Sunset. Totally cheap. Totally great. The blazing sun. The pool. Just too good. It's great to see my brother Jon. He's such a trip. A great guy. So much like my father. It's a good thing I'm out of here in two days or I might never leave. Only kidding, honey.

I completed my run of U.S. shows last night at the historic John and Peter's coffee house in New Hope, Pennsylvania. There's a framed photo of my brother Frank and I hanging on the wall backstage, dating back to 1975. All of the shows went really well and I could not have been treated better. I'll rest up today and then head out to Los Angeles tomorrow for five days. Can't wait to get some of that California sunshine.

I had such a great day. I went to visit my old buddy Rob Paoletti at Calvary Chapel Philadelphia. Rob is an assistant pastor there and just the most anointed musician i know. We grew up together in Bucks County. I could just go on for hours about Rob. He is just a brilliant teacher and a very funny guy. I had such a great time. Praise the Lord. He is so good.

I'm back in beautiful Bucks County, Pa. staying with my old friend Randall Thompson. Randall is a great guitarist who I've played periodically with since i was 14 years old. He's heading out for a three gig run today and I'm stringing up a borrowed Guild acoustic and preparing for my first show tomorrow night. The weather is stellar and the air is crisp. Pennsylvania rocks.

Summer is back in Heidelberg. It was in the 90s today which is fine by me. I'm getting slowly prepared for a trip to the USA in a few weeks. I'll do some shows in the Philadelphia area that are posted on my gigs link.

I'm on my way to the Wednesday night gig with the twins but I wanted to mention a little trip I took yesterday. The twins and I, along with the elusive Norbert, went to visit Carlos Juan at his guitar shop in Stuttgart bright and early. Carlos is a guitar genius who designs pickups, guitar amps and pre-amps. I happily purchased a new acoustic pickup for my old Gibson and it's singing.
He's a real character and we were greeted warmly while he gave us his full attention. All his products are worth checking out for all you guitar freaks out there.
Check out his credentials and you'll see why.

http://www.carlosjuan.eu/index.php

A few weeks back I met my brother Jon in Ireland for 5 days. Jon is the executive producer of an upcoming film called "Man On the Train". It features Donald Sutherland Larry Mullin from U2. You should be able to see it in theaters soon. We stayed in Dublin and Galway and really enjoyed ourselves. Jon and I are both dual citizens of the United States and Ireland.

The shows with Steve Kimock went great. Thanks Hans and Ruth Sichard, Hajo and Moni Lorenz and all the different folks and musicians who helped make it all happen. Not to mention Jen and Steve Kimock who came all the way to Germany to treat us once again to the incredible guitar playing of Mr. Steve.

It's a week until the first show together with Steve Kimock. There's a lot of preparing to do and we're all very excited about Steve's third visit to Germany. Southern France was off the hook and it wasn't easy to tear myself away. It was fantastic to see my brothers Frank and Jon. They're both brilliant and we had a really great hang.