 South Carolinian Jack Williams is a guitarist/singer/songwriter based in Kerrville, Texas. He is outstanding among the handful of artists who - in skill, depth and integrity - are simply beyond the pale of most performers on the circuit. Among acoustic guitarists he is near-legendary. Having avoided the compromises of the commercial music industry during his 40+-year professional career, he prefers working the road, playing coffeehouses, concerts festivals and house concerts week in, week out, from the sheer love of music and performing.
In recent years, Jack has emerged from self-imposed obscurity to become firmly established in the contemporary acoustic - or "folk" - music world. This has led him to acclaimed appearances this year at the Newport and Boston Folk Festivals, as well as at recent Kerrville and Philadelphia Festivals, and at several Folk Alliance Conferences, where his guitar-playing, songs, and commanding personal presence always caused a considerable buzz.
Jack has been writing |
since 1970, and has four CDs of original music on the Wind River (Folk Era) label: Highway From Back Home , Dreams of the Song Dog, Across the Winterline, and Eternity & Main. His fifth and sixth albums will be released by early 2003.
As a guitarist, he has been invited to accompany Tom Paxton, Peter Yarrow, Mickey Newbury and many others. Recently, in a Worcester, Massachusetts Arlo Guthrie concert, he was invited by Guthrie to join him on stage and sing one of his own songs, and then to join Arlo’s group for the final half-hour of the concert. As a producer he worked on CDs by Mickey Newbury, Carla Ulbrich, and, most recently, Eric Schwartz.
Peter Yarrow called Jack "The best guitar-player I've ever heard."
Friendships with two great singers had an enormous impact on the rest of Jack's career. In 1973, his relationship with the late Harry Nilsson resulted in an album effort at RCA during a year of music-industry turmoil and was an extraordinary learning experience. He lately has toured as sole accompanist to his friend, legendary songwriter Mickey Newbury, with whom he recorded a live album, Nights When I Am Sane (reissued as Winter Winds), on Winter Harvest. In 1996, Jack played and co-wrote a song on Mickey's next CD, Lulled By The Moonlight, which made Billboard's CD pick-of-the-week. Jack remains involved in helping Mickey complete his life's work in performing and recording.
Mickey Newbury said, "Jack and his music are an American treasure".
From 1958 through 1987, Jack was probably best-known as an electric guitarist in several influential rock bands. In the late 60's, he began exploring his troubadour nature and started to perform solo, singing and playing a gut-string guitar, traveling coast to coast. Before becoming a writer, Jack drew inspiration from the varied likes of Jesse Winchester, Josh White, Hank Williams, Willis Alan Ramsey and Ray Charles. When the spirit moves him today, hundreds of songs from favorite writers spring readily from his lips and fingers.
Tom Paxton said, "….one of my all-time favorite pickers!".
As a hired-gun guitarist in the 60's, Jack worked shows with John Lee Hooker, Big Joe Turner, Jerry Butler, Z.Z. Hill and Hank Ballard. His bands also backed up such artists as the Shirelles, the Del-Vikings, the Coasters, the Drifters, and the Platters.
Jack's career has been nothing if not eclectic. He played trumpet in a jazz quartet in a beatnik coffeehouse in Seattle in 1959 - reading poetry to the audience during breaks. He learned banjo and mandolin to spice up folk groups in the 60's. He played pedal-steel guitar in a country-rock band, and composed chamber music for strings, winds, piano and voice for which he won a national arts grant in 1967. He also played classical guitar/lute in a Renaissance ensemble.
SING OUT! Says “…one of the strongest guitar players in contemporary folk.”
Jack Williams is truly a melting pot of all these influences, fusing guitar, voice and songs in creating all-American southern music that should not be missed. |
