Bill Goodwin is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter located in Washington, DC. He began playing classical guitar at age 12 and studied composition and performance at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

A decade-long struggle with a shoulder injury in his 40’s all but ended his ability to play guitar as he felt himself painfully fossilizing and unable to play for more than 10 minutes without intense pain. However, 2019 he began an intense regimen of stretching at home based on his underlying concept “I’m either going to fix it or break it completely!” One amazing night during the pandemic he found himself playing the guitar, pain free and all night long until the sun came up.

He knew a handful of songs that he could play and sing and had written several songs but, in all honesty, he couldn’t really perform them because…well, his voice really sucked. Sure, he could sing on key, but with an unimpressive, single octave range “from C to shining C” before his voice would warble and fall apart into a weak falsetto. Nevertheless, he played and sang around the house and on the rooftop and his wife, Adriana, listened with rosey tinted earphones…or something.

Then in 2022 during a chance meeting in Palm Beach with Stevie Nicks' band members, Ricky Peterson and Al Ortiz kicked off a spontaneous beach sing-along. Al was an encyclopedia of classic rock songs, and Bill shared a couple covers and a couple originals to great effect. Inspired, Bill started learning covers at an alarming pace, but his limited vocal range and control was ruining the experience. He started vocal lessons with Eric Arceneaux, intending to improve his sing-a-long leadership, and instead, discovered how to use the vocal instrument he had been walking around with his whole life.

Happily, Adriana signed Bill up for an open mic night. At 56 years old it was the first time Bill had performed solo guitar and voice in front of an audience and it was….super, super fun. Now Bill hosts the Open Mic Night at the Coupe every month, as well as hosting episodic mini-concerts there and performs at local porchfests and music festivals.