Biography

What a year 2020 is shaping up to be for Brooks Williams as he celebrates 30 years on the road as a touring musician, with this new album, Work My Claim, to illustrate why some of the most respected names on the circuit hold him in such high regard.

Long-time friend and personal hero Martin Simpson has called him “a great writer - the real thing.”

He’s served his time well and earned his stripes. On leaving Georgia at 19, he moved to Boston, ostensibly to attend Berklee School of Music, which never then happened, and cut his teeth performing in the coffee houses and neighbouring bars there. Soon, his reputation developed to the extent that he was appearing on stage alongside the likes of Nanci Griffith, Chris Smither, Leo Kottke, Shawn Colvin, and Taj Mahal.

Brooks may now call the UK home, but his music and manner are firmly rooted in his Statesboro, Georgia, birthplace.

A guitarists’ guitarist, behind his relaxed, easy manner, lies highly sophisticated, versatile, fingerstyle expertise, and he has a mean bottleneck slide technique too. He says he developed his career in classic ‘one fan at a time’ manner by gigging enthusiastically and loving every moment. He still does, touring at a dizzying pace and performing more than 200 shows a year.

He is “at the top of his game,” says Blues In Britain, adding: “It is pure talent, hard work and relentless touring which has brought him to the pinnacle of his career.”

His first album, released in 1990, received a glowing review from The Washington Post which inspired National Public Radio to give him some serious attention. That interview was broadcast coast-to-coast across the USA, and that’s where it all began.

To mark this 30th anniversary, Brooks has recorded an album of favourites from his back catalogue. Work My Claim plays to Brooks’ strengths as a musician and collaborator, showing off his full range of guitar styles and musical influences. The album features contributions by some of his closest musician friends including John McCusker, Christine Collister, Jim Henry (Eliza Gilkyson, Tracy Grammer, The Boxcar Lillies); Aaron Catlow (Yola Carter, Sheelanagig, Hawes & Catlow) and Phil Richardson (Claypath).

Brooks regularly performs and records with Boo Hewerdine as the duo, State of the Union, who will also do a couple of short tours in 2020. They’ve begun their fourth album, to be released in 2021. Throughout 2020 Brooks will also be working with Hans Theessink, Rab Noakes, Jim Henry, Sloan Wainwright, Aaron Catlow and Phil Richardson.