Brooks Williams
With bluesy finger-picking, soaring bottleneck slide, and swinging flat-picking, Brooks Williams’ music is rooted in the blues and is as fresh and original as any music you are likely to hear. His unique combination of traditional and original music inspired Dirty Linen magazine to call Brooks Williams one of “America’s musical treasures.” His guitar skills won him a place on the Top 100 Acoustic Guitarists list, in company with the likes of Michael Hedges, Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke, Doc Watson, and David Bromberg, to name a few.
A Statesboro, Georgia native — the town made famous by Blind Willie McTell in his song Statesboro Blues — Brooks began playing guitar at age 10 after being shown the opening riff to Purple Haze by a summer music camp counselor. Brooks’ mother responded to her son’s enthusiasm for the new instrument by buying him a Jose Feliciano-styled nylon string guitar with a double pickguard and arranged for him to learn a few chords and songs from the daughter of a friend. That was all he needed to get started. In the years following Brooks taught himself to play by listening to recordings by the likes of Eric Clapton, Maria Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt, Jorma Kaukonen, Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal.
But it wasn’t until he moved to Boston, Massachusetts in his late teens that Williams put it all together. In Boston, Williams first heard roots and blues music on the radio and started to go to shows in the city’s many acoustic music clubs.
Inspired by what he was seeing and hearing Williams began to perform on his own. He played loud, smoky bars on the weeknights and quiet coffee houses on the weekends and very quickly developed a loyal following eager for his innovative acoustic guitar playing and buttery soulful voice.
Since that time, Williams has built his career on a regime of constant touring in ever-widening circles from his Massachusetts home. For more than twenty years he has toured throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland. He’s played all the big festivals — Newport, Belfast, Winnipeg, Trowbridge — and all the acoustic music rooms — Iron Horse, Freight & Salvage, The Borderline, The Rotterdam. In May 2008 he’ll spend a week performing in Istanbul, Turkey.
Over the years Brooks Williams has recorded 16 CDs for labels like Green Linnet Records, Signature Sounds, Red Guitar Blue Music and Solid Air Records.
His newest, The Time I Spend With You, charted at #3 on the FOLKDJ charts in its first month, including three top-ten singles (#5, #6, #8). The Time I Spend With You is a high-energy, up-beat recording of rootsy originals, blues classics, and fingerpicked instrumentals (including Williams’ unique arrangement of the classic Beaumont Rag). It was recorded simply and directly at Signature Sounds with special guests like Dave Mattacks, Richard Gates, Karen Tweed, Dave Dick, and Gail Wade. Williams’ acoustic and resonator guitars and singing have never sounded better. Other ground-breaking titles in Williams’ discography include the best-selling roots/blues Knife Edge (1996), the instrumental gem Guitar Player (2005), which made the 100 Greatest Acoustic Guitar Albums list, and his acoustic tour-de-force Blues and Ballads (2006).
Brooks Williams has been praised by the likes of the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Acoustic Guitar, Blues In Britain, and Guitar Player. He has appeared on World Café, the BBC, and All Things Considered, and his recordings receive constant airplay on public, college and Americana radio. His innovative guitar sound-bytes can be heard in between news segments on National Public Radio and on Public Television.
In addition to his own music, Williams has recorded tracks on an impressive list of compilations, most notably the National Resophonic Instrumental Project (proceeds benefit Blues Aid and the Music Maker Relief Foundation), Letters To Bert (a tribute to guitar legend Bert Jansch), and DeLovely Guitar (a tribute to Cole Porter). He has also collaborated with and/or worked as a sideman with Sloan Wainwright, Rani Arbo, Steve Tilston, Karen Tweed, Gail Wade, and Paul Asbell.
A frequent contributor to Mel Bay’s Guitar Sessions, when not touring Williams finds time to maintain a professional teaching schedule. He directs the guitar program at Western New England College and is a teacher in high-demand on the summer guitar camp circuit giving regular workshops at The Swannanoa Gathering, Alaska-Midnight Sun Song Camp, Cedar Run Workshops, Newport Guitar Festival, and WUMB’s Summer Acoustic Music Week, to name but a few. Related to his unique approach to guitar teaching, Williams has begun work on an instructional DVD that should be released later in 2008.
Brooks Williams is as diverse and versatile a musician as you are likely to encounter. It is pleasantly difficult to pin him down. He’s a guitarist, a songwriter, and an interpreter; he is a frontman, a sideman, he works solo or in a band — and he is quite simply one of the most entertaining and engaging performers on the circuit today. From coast-to-coast, country-to-country, Williams and his guitars roll and tumble like nobody’s business.
© Red Guitar Blue Music 2008
MP3 Samples
Rich Tonight
Everywhere
Weepin' Willow
Little Lion (Live)
Great Big Sea (Live)