Anne Billmyer never knew a stranger.
She was loud. Out there. She wanted every night to be the best night of her life.
“She knew how to read a room better than anybody,” says Bobbi Carmitchell. “She was a consummate performer.”
Carmitchell, along with Billmyer and Deenie Rose (then known as Deenie Hamacher), performed together from around 1979-1984 in a folksy musical trio known as Wind and Wood.
Carmitchell and Rose readily describe Billmyer as the life of the party, and someone who taught them both valuable life lessons. For instance, to try to give everyone in an audience at least a minute of your time when you’re performing.
Billmyer died by suicide in 1985. She was 31 years old.
A sold-out event at Zoetropolis Cinema Stillhouse on Sunday, Nov. 16, will honor Billmyer and the legacy left behind by Wind and Wood, 40 years later.
Carmitchell, a Willow Street native who now lives in Hershey, has been working on digitizing recordings and old photos from the band’s performances. She plans to display them all and tell some stories, too. Attendees will be encouraged to write down their favorite memories of the band, and Billmyer, and Carmitchell will read them aloud.
“Come expecting a celebration of a short life well lived, and the ripple effect of one person’s life,” says Carmitchell.
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From left, Bobbi Carmitchell, Anne Billmyer and Deenie Rose (previously known as Deenie Hamacher) performed in a trio called Wind and Wood in the early 1980s.
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History of the band
Wind and Wood first started with Billmyer and Rose, albeit informally. They were both students at Millersville University. Billmyer was playing a tune and singing in her dorm when Rose heard her.
When Carmitchell joined the band, everything just clicked for them. They were one of the first all-women bands to perform in Lancaster, and they routinely sold out at performances in both Harrisburg and Lancaster.
Carmitchell recalls a time when she and her bandmates were unloading their speakers into a venue. A table of men said that the girls’ husbands were really lucky to have wives that would load their equipment in for them, not realizing they were the group performing.
“We didn’t realize that we were the first women to do it,” Carmitchell says. “We didn’t even look around and see that there weren’t any other women (performing in all-women bands).”
Wind and Wood got a lot of attention, both locally and nationally. Stephen Reed, Harrisburg’s mayor from 1982-2010, was a big fan of Wind and Wood and would often come by their performances, Carmitchell says. Although much of their audiences were women, or members of the LGBTQ+ community, there was already a variety of people of all ilk in attendance for their shows.
In 1984, Reed attended a surprise anniversary party for Wind and Wood and declared Jan. 18-19 as “Wind and Wood Weekend” in Harrisburg. Carmitchell says she recently donated the proclamation to the LGBT Center in Harrisburg.
From left, Bobbi Carmitchell, Deenie Rose (then known as Deenie Hamacher) and Anne Billmyer ride in a carriage on the way to a surprise celebration for their fourth anniversary as Wood and Wind.
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Later that year, on Feb. 15, 1984, Wind and Wood performed for then-President Ronald Reagan, as they were invited to emcee an event that celebrated Susan B. Anthony in the Hall of Flags of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C.
Billmyer announced at the beginning of 1984 that she’d be quitting at the end of the year and moving to California. So, the band wanted to have a great year leading up to Billmyer’s departure.
“If Anne hadn’t died … maybe like so many bands, do it where we go our separate ways and we part as friends, like a relationship,” Carmitchell says. “It’s hard to say where Wind and Wood would still be embedded in the memories of so many people.”
Since Billmyer’s death and the band’s breakup, Carmitchell has gone on to record a half-dozen albums. Carmitchell never intended to be a songwriter, but she was inspired after Billmyer’s death, she says.
“Because we lost the shining star at a young age, it’s like a ring in the tree moment, you know?” Carmitchell says. “The tree falls down and you see these rings and you’re like, ‘Whoa, look at this one. Something big happened here.'”
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A photo from a 1984 article about Wind & Wood, Lancaster’s first all-female band, from the Intelligencer Journal.
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‘Crosby, Stills and Nash for women’
Despite getting so much attention, band members stayed true to their roots. They still performed locally, with most venues not charging a cover. It was normal to see them in spots like Bube’s Brewery in Mount Joy, Lancaster Dispensing Company in Lancaster city and at the Midtown Tavern in Harrisburg (now called the Mad Moose Tavern).
Donna Styer, who started seeing Wind and Wood’s performances as a fan and then ended up becoming a friend of the band, says that they were unbelievably talented.
“When the three of them were together, I could hardly believe what I was hearing, because it was so amazing,” Styer says. “They’re fabulous women, with no ego.”
Styer says that people were lucky to get a seat whenever they played because it would be so crowded.
In tribute to Billmyer, Styer has planted three separate trees — the first two died — alongside a commemorative plaque on the top of the hill that overlooks the rose garden at Buchanan Park, in Lancaster city.
She plans to attend the event at Zoetropolis on Nov. 16 to honor Billmyer and reminisce about the band’s golden days.
“It’ll just be beautiful, for sure,” Styer says.
Rose, who now lives in Aptos, California, and still works in the music industry, readily describes the band as “the Crosby, Stills and Nash for women.”
“We did those kinds of harmonies,” Rose says. Billmyer was the lower voice, Carmitchell was the mid-range voice and Rose was the higher voice.
Although Rose won’t be at the Zoetropolis event, she remains close friends with Carmitchell and those she was friends with when they performed locally.
“The whole experience impacted my life forever,” says Rose.
Bobbi Carmitchell, left, and Anne Billmyer perform a show as Wind and Wood. (The hands of Deenie Rose, the third member of the band, are seen on the right).
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