Geno Bill

Geno & Bill are Geno Champagne and Bill Thibeault. They played together in a Connecticut cover band in the early 70's, and have since drifted apart, working on and off in different area bands. In early May, 2006, the two crossed paths one night at a local bar, and began discussing music. They decided to get together to possibly put together a duo. It turns out that Champagne had quite a backlog of song material he had written. Thibeault took a look at some of the material and made a few minor changes here and there. The end result is an irresistible mix of rock, folk and country. One of the highlights is a song Geno wrote in the early nineties called “Where’s the Glory?” The song was written after the Gulf War, primarily for the Vietnam veterans. The inspiration was the difference in the treatment of the returning war veterans on the home front. It was also written to be sung by a veteran. It turns out that Thibeault is a Vietnam veteran and immediately connected with the song. He is a survivor of the USS Frank E. Evans, a U.S. destroyer which collided with the HMSA Melbourne, an Australian aircraft carrier, on June3, 1969. 74 crewmen went down with the ship. Thibeault has since learned that none of the 74 lost that day are on the Vietnam Wall. In July, 2006, Thibeault had another chance encounter in the same bar with Andy Stackpole, a professional sound engineer who occasionally did sound for Thibeault’s band Random Access in the late eighties. It turns out that Stackpole is also now a recording engineer as well as the front of the house sound engineer for acts such as Living Colour, Mos Def, and Steven Segal. One thing led to another and in September of 2006 Geno & Bill began work on their first album with Stackpole producing and mixing. The CD is available online at CD Baby and iTunes. It is also available at The Other Side, 29 Franklin St., Norwich, CT 06360.