“I F WILLIAMS’ GUITAR PICKING GETS ANY SHARPER, we’ll have to invent new adjectives,” says the Boston Globe. Guitar Player magazine puts it even more succinctly: “Glorious.” Speaking for himself, Williams says: “I taught myself to play guitar, for the most part, by listening to my older brother’s records. Initially, I was captivated by the playing of John Renbourne, Jorma Kaukonen, and Michael Bloomfield. These players, while doing something very new and original, also clearly reflected their influences. That’s what I try to emulate.”
Williams has built up a huge repertoire of original songs in fourteen-odd years of performing, and has released fourteen albums. In his music you’ll hear plenty of blues-soaked fingerpicking; you’ll also hear echoes of the Beatles, country music, rock, soul, Latin, African, Celtic, even Hawaiian — eclectic, but well-integrated. He’s played everywhere from small coffeehouses to major festivals in the US, Canada and the British Isles. Besides his solo gigs, he makes up half a duo with the luminous Rani Arbo, has shared the stage with Shawn Colvin, Leo Kottke, Taj Mahal, and John Prine (to name a few), and fills the spaces between news stories on NPR with his mellifluous riffs.
As awe-inspiring as his guitar technique is, Williams is equally known for his writing and his buttery and muscular voice, not to mention the rapport he has with his audiences. George Graham notes that “Brooks Williams excels at being both the guitar player and the composer-vocalist.” Come see him at the Me&Thee.
$15
Brooks Williams is probably the best damn guitar player you’ll see grace a stage. Whether it’s fancy flatpicking, delicate fingerpicking, rootsy resonator blues or workmanlike acoustic rock, Williams delivers the goods. The Valley Advocate
Williams is a cinematic songwriter who builds his unique brand of original folk out of a fusion of roots music — blues, country, Celtic — mixing it with Beatlesque melodies and rock ’n’roll rhythms. The Berkshire Eagle
If you're reading this, you're probably using a very old browser like Netscape 4 or backward software like AOL’s. Did you know that you can download a new browser that conforms to Web standards and displays pages as they are meant to be viewed? More than 90% of web users are using modern browsers, and the difference is significant. You can, of course, download Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com) or Netscape’s Communicator (http://www.netscape.com), which are free of charge but may not work on old computers. I suggest you give the Opera browser a try (http://www.opera.com). It's light, fast, and has a free version with all the features of the full version (just an advertising patch at the top). There's no need to lose out on so many of the visual and functional features of the Web. –Me&Thee webmaster
