BROOKS WILLIAMS – My Turn Now (Red Guitar Blue Music RGBM-2016)

My Turn NowI first encountered Brooks Williams five or six years ago at a festival. He was sitting outside a pub playing in the sunshine because the venue was locked and nobody could find the key. It was a splendid session and that’s the sort of man Brooks is.

The blues and the delights of resonator guitars are at the heart of Brooks’ music but there’s more to him than that. Take ‘Rosalyn’, one of his own songs, the tale of a doomed love affair. It is deceptively simple with drums by co-producer Chris Pepper and bass by Richard Gates with Brooks playing National and slide guitars. But listen again to that bass line and then pick up on the subtleties of the melody.

My Turn Now is a mixture of styles and there is a sort of narrative thread running through the record. The first two tracks, ‘Crazy Dance’ and ‘My Turn Now’ are brash, up-tempo numbers and it feels as though a few rough edges have been deliberately left in place. Track three, ‘Nine Days’ Wonder’, featuring the first contribution from Sally Barker, is an upbeat, slightly cynical take on modern-day celebrity culture, followed by one of my favourite tracks here, ‘Darkness’.

The covers include a rocking version of Mose Allison’s ‘You’re Mind Is On Vacation’ and a snappy take on ‘Hesitation Blues’. Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Nobody Wins’ is another departure, featuring sharded lead vocals with Barker. I have to say that it’s a bit naughty to label ‘Sitting On Top Of The World’ as traditional. Its authorship is, I believe, beyond question but putting that caveat aside this is a fine album.

Dai Jeffries

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Artist’s website: http://brookswilliams.com/

Brooks plays ‘Darkness’ live:

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