Tim Williams, the Californian who settled in Canada 45 years ago and never came back, fronts The Electro Fires but is So Low (Lowden Proud Records Ltd) on his comfortable new CD: no edits, no guests, no overdubs, just a man, a Gretsch Alligator Resonator guitar and, as it says in the liner notes, "the tapping of a two-tone wing-tip shoe" acting as percussion.
True, he may switch to his Harmony Sovereign Deluxe 12-string and his old Marquette (over 100 years old but still going strong) or even his all-birch Stella mandolin, either way, Williams is So Low. He'll do you up a blues ("My Big Money") by Big Bill Broonzy [1893-1958] as fast as saying hello. Ditto for Blind Boy Fuller [1907-1941] and his "Pistol Snapper." He'll even crank up an old Mose Allison ("If You Live"), transposing Allison's piano runs into guitar figures of rare beauty and complexity.
Plus, he writes. "Midnight After Midnight" and "Lightnin'" (in homage to his hero, Lightnin' Hopkins [1912-1982]) closes things out on an original note. He's not above goin' country either as his version of Johnny Cash's "Big River" is as satisfying as anything else on this little gem of a CD. And when he rips into the ragtimey "Grizzly Bear," you can't help but smile and move.
We need more guys like Tim Williams, guys who have a healthy respect for those who came before them and know how to do. It's often said that guys like this ultimately turn into that which they start out emulating so let's hope some pimply teenager from the backwoods of Southern Alberta takes his guitar out one day in the future to play some old Tim Williams songs for generations not yet born.
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