Former area musician Brooks Williams to play Iron Horse
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Brooks Williams has always had something of the blues coursing through his music. After all, the one-time Valley guitarist and songwriter was born in Statesboro, Ga., the setting for the classic song "Statesboro Blues" by Blind Willie McTell, which has been covered by numerous musicians including the Allman Brothers, Chris Smither, Taj Mahal - and Williams himself.
But it's through his touring overseas that Williams, who moved to Great Britain in 2010, has really come to appreciate his musical heritage. In a career in which he's drawn on many influences - folk, blues, jazz, rock, African and Brazilian guitar stylings - he's found audiences increasingly responsive to his interpretations of classic American blues and jazz tunes, and his own songs composed in that style.
"In my tours over here in the U.K. and in Ireland I feel I've discovered my voice," Williams said during a recent interview by phone and by email from his home in Cambridge, England. "And one of those discoveries is how connected I am to blues and roots music." His European audiences are particularly interested in those styles of songs, he notes, and "their valuing it makes me value it more."
Next week, Williams, 53, who lived in Northampton, Shutesbury and Greenfield for over 20 years before his transatlantic move, will perform in the area for the first time in a couple of years. He'll play Feb. 8 at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton at 7 p.m.
"It's going to be a thrill to be back in the Valley," said Williams, who adds that as much as he likes living in his adopted home, he misses old friends and favorite local spots like the Miss Saigon restaurant in Amherst and the Iron Horse itself.
Long known here for his mastery of the acoustic guitar - he was voted one of America's 100 top players in a Rolling Stone magazine poll a few years back - Williams is also gaining increasing recognition in Great Britain for his fretwork, singing and energetic live shows. Among the accolades he's collected over the years is this quote from The Irish News: "He possesses a melodic virtuosity on the guitar that flows like liquid from his fingers."
Williams has also been buoyed by a new collaboration with Boo Hewerdine, a British songwriter who led the cult band The Bible in the 1980s. The two guitarists have recorded their first album together, "State of the Union," in the U.K. and will tour there in the spring and again later this year; they hope to take the tour to the U.S., Australia and Japan as well.
Their record, featuring acoustic numbers written by Williams and Hewerdine, comes on the heels of Williams' two most recent solo albums, 2008's "The Time I Spend With You" and 2010's "Baby O!" Both reflected Williams' increasing turn to old blues and jazz, featuring his arrangements of standards like "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" and "61 Highway" and original songs steeped in that tradition. A longtime slide guitar player, Williams now plays a lot of resonator guitar, too.
New directions
Looking back, Williams says, a combination of factors pushed him in this new direction and also prompted his move to the U.K. From the early 1990s into the mid-2000s he'd released 14 albums, both on his own and on the local Signature Sounds label and Connecticut-based Green Linnet Records, all featuring guitar instrumentals or more traditional "singer/songwriter" material. But around six or seven years ago, he says, he found himself at a bit of a crossroads.
"I'd come to the end of all my business contracts - my record contract, my booking contract - and it wasn't clear what my next move should be," he said. He'd cut back on his touring and was teaching guitar at summer workshops on the East Coast as well as at Western New England College in Springfield and at Artspace in Greenfield. But through a longtime promoter, he was still playing some regular gigs in Texas, and he added more traditional blues to those shows.
"I just played what I felt like playing, songs that I knew, and it was pure pleasure," he said. "The audiences loved it." That prompted him to record 2006's "Blues and Ballads," an album of traditional songs and his first CD without any of his own material.
"That whole experience really opened up things for me, really recharged my career," he said. "I started liking it again, and I started writing songs with a much clearer structure in mind."
As far back as 1992, he'd been doing short but regular tours in England and Ireland. It was at a gig in England about six years ago that met his future wife, Jo. The two became friends and the relationship later blossomed into a romance; they married when Williams moved to England. The couple had discussed splitting their time between the U.K. and the U.S. but decided the cost and legal issues would be prohibitive.
Though he'd built up a loyal fan base in the U.K. over the years, Williams says moving there has expanded his playing possibilities enormously. "It took people awhile to realize I was here, but I think I'm pretty established now. ... English, Irish and European audiences understand roots music in a very inspiring way, so that's given me lots of gigs and workshops including playing at the Glastonbury Festival, one of the biggest rock festivals in the world."
In one 10-day period, Williams played at a rock festival, a country festival and a jazz/blues festival - tailoring his playlist to the dynamics of each. He also met Hewerdine, whose songs have been recorded by k.d. lang and Eddi Reader, among others, and the two quickly became friends.
"We felt a real creative spark - we really hit it off, even though we come from very different musical backgrounds," Williams said. Though he's performed and recorded with many musicians over the years, he says, he's never written songs with another player until now.
Meanwhile, he's been steadily adjusting to life in England, from driving on the left side of the road to learning about the differences in a parliamentary system of government, with some basic civics lessons from his wife. The pace of life is a slower and more "humane" in the U.K. than in America, Williams said, and travel time to gigs is generally much shorter.
That doesn't mean he hasn't faced some headaches. In 2010, after submitting his passport to a government office as part of his application for a residency permit, he was forced to cancel a tour in the states because he couldn't get the passport back in time for the trip.
"What a price to pay for learning about bureaucracy," he said.
With all his paperwork now in order, Williams tours the U.S. three to four times a year, sometimes with his wife, a dance and Pilates instructor and music manager, also visiting friends and family when time allows. His son from his previous marriage, Lee Williams, studies filmmaking at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Living in Britain, where he also writes for an acoustic music magazine, has given Williams a springboard for playing and teaching in more distant locales as well: Turkey, Sardinia, even Kenya and Tanzania. He also led guitar and songwriting workshops in a French vacation home run by some ex-pat Brits, where most of the conversation was in English - except during trips into nearby villages.
"I ordered a couple of coffees in a cafe and got fish," he said. "Not sure how that happened!"
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.
Brooks Williams plays the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton Feb. 8 at 7 p.m.; doors open at 5:30 p.m. Tickets cost $12.50 in advance; $15 at the show. For information or to reserve, call the Northampton Box Office at 586-8686 or visit www.NBOtickets.com.
