2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Stuff, April 10, 2007
This review is from: Blues & Ballads (Audio CD)
I had heard a lot of great things about Brooks Williams and was certainly prepared to like him before actually seeing him in concert. But jaded music fan that I am, I never expected to quite so blown away as I was this past Saturday when I finally did get to see him perform live in a "house concert" setting. "Live," Brooks is an engaging, personable performer as well as being a great instrumentalist. Everything I had heard suggested that he was a top flight contemporary acoustic guitarist, but he is a fine--if understated--singer with great stage presence. In other words, pretty much the complete package.
This CD, his 13th, captures Brooks at his varied best. The title may suggest a specialized "project albums" but upon listening to the recording, it becomes readily apparent that you need to interpret those terms ("blues" and "ballads") in the broadest possible sense. Well, what else can you say about an album whose tracks were composed by artists as diverse as Miles Davis, Bruce Cockburn, Blind Boy Fuller and Duke Ellington? Brooks finds the common thread in all these varied compositions, throws in a number of traditional tunes and emerges with an album that is as seamless as it is diverse.
Brooks Williams has gotten me to fall in love with guitar music again. Great stuff.
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