Bill, a singer-guitarist whose early influences included Elmore James, Buddy Guy and Freddie King, started performing in various blues/rock bands in 1973. Like most guitar players of his generation, he listened to all of the contemporary players of the 1960s and '70s, like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter, Jeff Beck and Duane Allman. (Even today, you can still hear some of Duane's influences in Bill's electic slide guitar playing.)
In the late 1980s, he started listening other guitar greats like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert Collins and Robert Cray (who is a major influence on Bill's guitar style). In 1995, while playing guitar and singing with a rock band in Connecticut, Bill realized that he really wanted to follow his heart and play blues. So at that point he dedicated himself as a blues musician. For several months, he went to blues jams in the Boston area searching for other like-minded musicains, and it was in August of 1995 that he met Ellie Mae Higgins, who was also commited to playing and performing authentic blues music.
It was through Ellie's influence that Bill discovered the old guitar greats of the 1920s and '30s, like Tampa Red, Blind Boy Fuller and Son House. So with Ellie's extensive record collection, and his own research, Bill learned how to play in the style of that era. In recent years, Bill, a self-taught musician, learned how to play cornet (a bluesy relative of the trumpet), which he has been playing extensively in the Acoustic Blues Duo. It's always a real crowd-pleaser. As a multi-instrumentalist, Bill has accompanied several area musicians and also appears on two CDs, both produced by Ark Albums.
