Brooks Williams

Artist Information

Biography

Brooks Williams is one of the premier guitarists, singers and songwriters on the Roots Blues Americana scene. A 23-year veteran of the road, Williams has been wowing audiences worldwide with his silky voice and his rollicking acoustic and resonator slide guitars, every night delivering the deepest and most intense interpretations of everything from early blues songs to his recent original compositions.

BIOGRAPHY
Brooks Williams was born in Statesboro, Georgia (US). The thick humid southern air and red clay informed his early guitar and song explorations, but it wasn’t until he reached the thriving club scene in Boston, Massachusetts (US) in his late teens that Williams’ southern bluesy Americana roots began to be heard in his songs and riffs. It was there, in the little clubs and bars of New England, that he developed his sound, playing 5-6 nights a week.

Thousands of miles and 23-years later, Brooks Williams now lives the trans-Atlantic life in Cambridge (UK) and Boston (US) and has played everywhere from Dallas to London, Istanbul to Anchorage, Toronto to Dublin, and Detroit to Glasgow, with Italy and Africa in the works for 2010.

Williams has had a special relationship with the UK, touring there every year and increasingly since the mid-1990s. The Georgia-born guitarist found not only a receptive audience but also a home-like environment in which to explore and develop his musical voice. The blues and roots music from the US that traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to the UK on scratchy records and static-laden radio signals in the 1950s and early 1960s, and then traveled back across to the US from the UK in the late 1960s and 1970s via the UK and Irish singers and guitarists, shed a very profound light on Williams’ interpretations of Piedmont, Delta and Texas blues as well as his blues-inspired original compositions.

Williams recorded his newest (and 17th) CD, Baby O!, in the UK. Bringing his songs, voice, guitars, and foot-stompin’ grooves together with UK music-mates David Goodier on bass (Jethro Tull), PJ Wright on pedal steel and dobro (Little Johnny England), Keith Warmington on harmonica, and Helen Watson on backing vocals. Produced by Williams, and engineered by Andy Bell (Seasick Steve, The Demon Barbers, Kerfuffle), Baby O! is Williams most immediate and compelling roots record to date.

HISTORY
Brooks Williams was recently named one of the Top 100 Acoustic Guitarists (with the likes of Michael Hedges, Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke, Doc Watson, and David Bromberg, to name a few) and was voted to the Top 100 Folk Artists Of The Past 25 Years by WUMB-FM Radio, Boston. Williams’ 2008 tour-de-force, The Time I Spend With You, went to #3 on the FOLKDJ charts in the US (with three top ten singles, including the Mississippi Fred McDowell standard, 61 Highway) and remained there for six months. Over the years he has recorded for labels as diverse as Signature Sounds, Green Linnet, Solid Air, and Red Guitar Blue Music. He’s learned the studio trade first-hand working with roots music producers like Colin Linden (Blackie And The Rodeo Kings, Bruce Cockburn) in Toronto (Canada) and Phil Madeira (Buddy and Julie Miller, Emmylou Harris) in Nashville (US).

Equally praised by the likes of The Boston Globe, Acoustic Guitar, Blues In Britain, fRoots, and Guitar Player, his recordings are favorites on roots and blues radio programs world-wide including The BBC (UK), National Public Radio (US), CBC (Canada), and RTE (Ireland). He can also be heard on Satellite and Internet radio.

He has gigged with Taj Mahal, John Hammond, Paul Jones, Little Feat, Maria Muldaur, Chris Smither, Leo Kottke, and Rory Block (to name but a few), and performed Trowbridge Festival, Priddy Festival, Crawley Festival, Gate to Southwell, Folk On The Pier, the Guitar Stars Festival, the Marlborough Jazz Festival, the Rock N’ Blues Festival, Moab Folk Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival and the Newport Folk Festival.

A respected teacher, Williams regularly leads workshops in guitar and songwriting at schools, colleges, and camps throughout the world. His instructional DVD, Guitar Groove: A Session With Brooks Williams (Woodhall Music-Canada), is praised for its clarity and fun. A second Woodhall Music DVD, An Introduction to Blues Guitar, is in the works for 2010. Recent teaching workshops include Acoustic Alaska (US), Marlborough College (UK), Guitar Retreats (UK), and The Swannanoa Gathering (US).

Instrumentation

Brooks Williams, acoustic, resonator, and slide guitar and vocals.

Discography

Baby O! (Red Guitar Blue Music, 2010)
The Time I Spend With You (Red Guitar Blue Music, 2008)
Blues and Ballads (Red Guitar Blue Music, 2006)
Guitar Player (Solid Air Records, 2005)
Live Solo (Red Guitar Blue Music, 2004)
Nectar (Signature Sounds, 2003)
Acoustic Beginnings 1990-1991: A Best Of (Red Guitar Blue Music, )2002
Skiffle-Bop (Signature Sounds, 2001)
Dead Sea Café 1992-1997: A Best Of (Silent Planet Records, 2000)
Little Lion (Signature Sounds, 2000)
Hundred Year Shadow (Signature Sounds, 1999)
Seven Sisters (Green Linnet Records, 1997)
Knife Edge (Green Linnet Records, 1996)
Ring Some Changes: Guitar Duets with Jim Henry (Signature Sounds, 1995)
Inland Sailor (Green Linnet Records, 1994)
Back To Mercy (Green Linnet Records, 1992)
How The Night-time Sings (Red Guitar Blue Music, 1991)
North From Statesboro (Red Guitar Blue Music, 1990)

Audio

• Frank Delandry
  Listen  
• Walk You Off My Mind
  Listen  
• 61 Highway
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• The Time I Spend With You
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• Belfast Blues
  Listen  

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Concert Review [+ Show ]
  

  “Williams is able to take traditional material and put his own stamp on it without making it unrecog...“Williams is able to take traditional material and put his own stamp on it without making it unrecognizable…we called him back for three encores. It was a superb performance!”

• CD Review
  

  “How soulful a solo guitarist can be when he has talent, taste and astonishing technique.”

• CD Review [+ Show ]
  

  “His slide, finger-picking and lead work is excellent and there is the best cover of Fred McDowell's...“His slide, finger-picking and lead work is excellent and there is the best cover of Fred McDowell's 61 Highway we've heard in a couple of decades.”

• CD Review
  

  “A consummate artist, Williams ranks among America's musical treasures.”

• Concert Review
  

  “He possesses a melodic virtuosity on the guitar that runs like liquid from his fingers...”

• CD Review
  

  “Harmonically sophisticated and breathtakingly beautiful…”

• CD Review
  

  “Dazzling guitar work!”

• CD Review
  

  “Deft, tasteful guitar chops.”

• Concert Review
  

  “A fret monster who has to be seen to be believed!”

Setlist

Sets List: includes classic blues and rootsy originals. Songs included:
Weepin' Willow Blues, 61 Highway, The Time I Spend With You, Belfast Blues, Going Back To Texas, How Long 'Til I'm In My Baby's Arms, Beaumont Rag, Same Ol' Me, and On The Rollin' Sea (to name but a few selections).

Set Length: varies depending on event. Typical sets include: 2 45-minute sets, 1 75-90-minute set, 1 35-45-minute set, 1 30-minute set.

Basic Requirements

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