Bill Cusmano
Guitarist, Vocalist
In Bill's own words:
Arrived W&M 1977. Disco reigned. I did not. Wednesday nights at the Pub were regular exercises in binge drinking and desperation.
Graduated 1981. Had started college life thinking about Chemistry, premed. Organic and Inorganic Chem put me in short pants. English Literature.
With my 1975 Les Paul (still have it), jammed with different sets of guys but no regular band. A crazy man with red hair from NJ named Kevin something used to host them. I remember actually playing some very informal “gigs” at the campground all the way out Jamestown Road, near the ferry. Classic rock.
Wanted a band. No one wanted me. Too chickenshit to start one.
Knew Reid Harrison from freshman dorm. Jammed occasionally with him. I remember in particular one fairly epic spring afternoon into the evening on the roof of Dupont. Reid apparently does not, but I remember it for the young woman I had taken up with at that time, who was most of our enthusiastic audience, as much as anything.
Around junior year started hanging around with Deeme Katson, Shep Williams, and the Katson Blues Band. Did sound, used to sit in once in a while. When KBB’s regular bass player moved back to Oklahoma, picked up bass and played for KBB for a couple years (by then we were the Essentials). Gigged around DC, Charlottesville, Richmond, with occasional victory lap returns to the Pub. Gawd those were great nights.
Returned to W&M for law school. Had a decent unit. No name, but we used to play parties, happy hours, once in a while out at Lake Matoaka. Learned a bit about life when I suggested a Stones song, and the drummer, a black guy, said, who? He sort of knew that the Stones were a band, but knew nothing about them. Satisfaction? Nope. Jumping Jack Flash? Nope. Brown Sugar? Nope. He said how about some P-Funk, and I said, what?
And you all will find this fascinating - I did about half the lead vocals.
Dimeslots: I knew who Bill Williams was, but didn’t know him. Knew that there was a Dimeslots, but I don’t think I ever saw them.
In 2015, Bill couldn’t make the W&M weekend reunion thing, and you all deigned to give Cusmano a shot, as few have stooped.
And, as we know, once you’re in, you can never leave. Happily so. You all have been among the most welcoming and supportive (and classy, and good) bunch of folks I ever played with. Ever hung out with. Every minute has been a pleasure, musically (lots to learn from folks in this band) and just because.
Discography implies fixed recordings. Not much of that. Did some demos with KBB and Essentials - I remember sitting in for some studio thing when Bo couldn’t make it; no idea whether that ended up anywhere. Now playing - all on hold in the time of Covid - with some classic rock cover bands.
Lawyer. Arlington. Still trying to get the hang of this playing music thing.
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Oh! One more thing.
The one band I did start, in HS, included a guy who remains probably the most gifted instrumentalist I have ever played with and maybe ever met. He could play anything. He was 14, I was 16. I was insanely jealous, but that didn’t work very well, because he was really, really hard to hate. Still in touch with him, and got to sit in with him at the Hamilton a couple of years ago.
In between, among other things, he played with and was Shania Twain’s music director through the height of her popularity, produced a couple of albums for Steve Forbert, and played on Springsteen’s last two albums.
We had a good little band.
And then I just saw a picture of another guy I used to play with in high school in a picture taken sometime in the late 80s, with Eric Clapton, with whom he had just jammed.
So I content myself with these brushes with greatness. And the Dimeslots.
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And one more other thing about my own unremarkable musical life:
Started playing trombone. At some point, girls reared their pretty heads, and when schlepping a big old trombone case onto the bus didn’t seem to be working, plus Duane Allman, I started playing guitar.
I was explaining why I quit trombone to a woman I met in New Orleans, a native, and when I said, “and when I realized that the trombone player never got the girl, I picked up guitar,” she laughed hard. She said, “Honey, you are not from around here!”