OXFORD — Acoustic blues-influenced singer/songwriter Brooks Williams will return to 6 On The Square in Oxford to perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4.
According to a media release, Williams was born in Statesboro, Georgia, (the town made famous by the classic song “Statesboro Blues”) and did his apprenticeship in the small bars and coffeehouses of New York City and Boston, following in the footsteps of Chris Smither, Rory Block, Shawn Colvin, Maria Muldaur, David Bromberg and Leo Kottke.
Williams performs hundreds of solo and band shows throughout Europe, North America and the U.K. each year and regularly collaborates with Hans Theessink, Guy Davis, Sally Barker, Boo Hewerdine, Paul Jones and Rab Noakes.
Regularly ranked among the top 100 acoustic guitarists, he is a finger-picker and a slide guitarist who also has been nominated for Best Male Vocalist by U.K. roots music publication Spiral Earth.
Alongside his solo shows, Williams regularly performs with a host of fellow musicians. One such collaboration is his duo with fiddler Aaron Catlow. They have two albums under their belt (“Ghost Owl,” short-listed at the Grammy Awards for 2021 Instrumental Album of the Year, and “Ready For The Times”), and a third on the way.
Over the years, other collaborations have included singer-songwriter Boo Hewerdine (they recorded three albums under the name State of the Union), banjoist Dan Walsh, singer Sloan Wainwright, bluesman Hans Theessink and the late-great singer-songwriter Rab Noakes, with whom Williams recorded “Should We Tell Him: Songs By Don Everly” shortly before his death in 2022.
His latest solo recording, “Work My Claim,” was released in 2020 and celebrates his 30 years in music. He revisited songs from across his career with fresh readings and the input of friends like John McCusker (Mark Knopfler,…
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