TIM WILLIAMS
SO LOW
LOWDEN PROUD RECORDS LTD LDWD 2052
IF YOU LIVE–MORE PEPPERS IN YOUR CHILI–MY BIG MONEY–ANYWHERE C/O THE BLUES–PISTOL SNAPPER–THE WITCHING HOUR–THE GRIZZLY BEAR–BIG RIVER–MIDNIGHT AFTER MIDNIGHT–LIGHTNIN’
As we listened to Tim Williams on his first completely-solo effort, aptly-titled “So Low,” we felt as if Tim had dropped by our humble home and took a seat on our front porch swing (yes, we do have one!), and started picking and singing. Tim has that feel of a vintage bluesman, when blues consisted of one man, one instrument, and one voice. He’s a consummate fingerpicker and a storyteller par excellence. On these ten cuts, he weaves some of his own yarns in with some classics he’s learned over the course of his career.
Leading off, Tim plays a song he learned from his days working with Mose Allison, where, “If You Live” long enough, “your time will come!” “Pistol Snapper” is Tim’s tribute to Blind Boy Fuller’s ultimate “done me wrong” song. He breaks down Johnny Cash’s “Big River” into its most base elements, and makes the “my baby left me and she’s solid gone” song, “Grizzly Bear,” (an early-20th Century dance craze), into a sprightly, lively romp.
We had some favorites, too. Tim urges us all to spice up our food (and our love lives, too!) by bein’ sure to “Put More Peppers In Your Chili bowl!” A song written by Big Bill Broonzy deals with “My Big Money,” a payment owed African-American WWI vets that was not fully satisfied until well after the war ended. In the tradition of Yank Rachell and Johnny Young, it is played here on a mandolin. Another of Tim’s originals is his ode to the evils of today’s society, where people will “offer you a diamond and leave you a rhinestone,” and, as such, “you can forward my mail Anywhere C/O The Blues!”
Pack up your leavin’ trunk and lace up your walkin’ shoes and head on down to your local record emporium, and tell ’em you want a copy of Tim Williams’ “So Low.’ It’s an excellent debut from a man who plays the blues the way they were meant to be played! Until next time…Sheryl and Don Crow.
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