Showing posts with label Brooks Williams. Show all posts

Friday 13 May 2022

State Of The Union return with some new tunes and a rescheduled full tour in March 2023

The Mighty, STATE OF THE UNION (Boo Hewerdine & Brooks Williams) - MARCH 2023

STATE OF THE UNION return with some new tunes and a rescheduled full tour in MARCH 2023.

Boo Hewerdine and Brooks Williams aka State of the Union, create a magical, stripped back and enthralling musical atmosphere with two guitars and two voices. Their performances are consistently brilliant, equal parts emotive and entertaining. Audiences are still buzzing about their previous festival main stage appearances.

The two formed their collaboration in 2011 and created two albums in rapid succession, State of the Union and Snake Oil. Subsequent tours took them around the UK, to Ireland and Portugal, including a 14-date stint playing theatres with Eddi Reader and an appearance on The Andrew Marr Show (BBC 1).

What followed in 2017 is Saltwell Sessions, an album of covers, some obscure and some well-known, including Don’t Blame Me (The Everly Brothers), Halfway (Greg Trooper) and Unforgettable (Nat King Cole). Their 25-date tour that followed saw full houses night after night. Here's another opportunity to catch the brilliant duo.

PLEASE GET IN TOUCH FOR LIVE DATES : MARCH 2023 (plus general availability)

Get in touch now, contact gail@laughingdogmusic.co.uk

tel: + 44 (0) 7905 952 374

Click here to go to LAUGHING DOG MUSIC

Click here to go to BROOKS WILLIAMS

Click here to go to BOO HEWERDINE

Saturday 31 July 2021

Alan Ritson Will Be Talking To Brooks Williams On Lincoln City Radio on Tuesday 3 August 2021 @ 7pm.

Tune in to Fine Folk on LCRFM 103.6FM (http://lcrlincoln.com) on Tuesday 3rd August at 7pm to listen to an interview with Alan Ritson speaking to Brooks Williams.

Brooks is an American acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter. His style combines roots, jazz, blues, classical, and folk. He has released albums of contemporary folk music, blues music, and of instrumental guitar music.

In addition to his solo recordings and tours, he has frequently recorded and toured with many other musicians over the years, including Boo Hewerdine, Jim Henry, Guy Davis and Steve Tilston.

Brooks Williams

Brooks Williams | Facebook

@BrooksRedGuitar

Friday 30 April 2021

Brooks Williams and Aaron Catlow Touring in 2021 / 2022 Book Now.

Brooks Williams and Aaron Catlow will be touring in 2021 / 2022. Promotors are invited to book in a date for brighter times ahead -

Brooks Williams is a Cambridge UK-based, Statesboro, Georgia US-born guitarist singer and songwriter.

With over 30-plus recordings and 30-plus years of touring, Williams is named one of WUMB-FM Boston's Top 100 All-Time Artists and is listed in the Top 100 Acoustic Guitarists. He was playing Americana before it was called that.

Known for both solos shows and collaborations, RnR writes, Williams is a "guitarist in
possession of rich vocal powers and a talent for lyrical imagery, his songs are imbued with uplifting generosity

" (Read Full RnR

Aaron Catlow is a Briston, UK based fiddle player playing acoustic, folk and roots music. Aaron Catlow | Facebook

The pair will be touring the UK in 2021 / 2022. Dates may be available outside of the official touring periods so please enquire. email gail@laughingdogmusic.co.uk

Home| Laughing Dog Music

@laffingdogmusic

@BrookeRedGuitar

@CatlowAaron

Thursday 6 September 2018

State of the Union Boo Hewerdine & Brooks Williams Booking Now for 2019

BooHewerdine BrooksWilliams StateoftheUnion crop lowres

Boo & Brooks

"Beautiful, classy playing and great songs" - Acoustic Magazine

“Americana at its finest!” - fRoots

Combining the mercurial talents of English songwriting legend Boo Hewerdine and acclaimed American Blues guitarist and songwriter Brooks Williams, State of the Union create a magical, stripped back and enthralling musical atmosphere, their performances consistently brilliant, equal parts emotive and entertaining.

The original songs Hewerdine & Williams play are infused by a multitude of influences, from Willie Nelson to Johnny Cash, from the wide open Fenlands to the frenetic buzz of the city. Their recordings are made quickly, in most instances first take, live in the studio, but the sound this amazing acoustic duo capture is rich and expertly executed.

About Boo Hewerdine & Brooks Williams

Boo is perhaps best known from his years fronting much loved English rock band The Bible but he has since enjoyed a solo career spanning over two decades and written thousands of published songs including those for Eddi Reader, Sia, Chris Difford, Kris Drever and KD Lang. His most recent album “Swimming In Mercury” is due out in February 2017 on Reveal Records.

Brooks Williams got his start in the clubs and bars in Boston USA (the same music scene that years earlier sparked the careers of Bonnie Raitt and Chris Smither) and from there he has toured in ever-widening circles for nearly three decades. In 2013 Williams was nominated best male vocalist by the UK’s foremost roots-music mavens, Spiral Earth. AmericanaUK says, “he has a beautiful voice that you just melt into.” He’s also ranked in the Top 100 Acoustic Guitarists. Over the years he has picked alongside Taj Mahal, John Hammond, Paul Jones, Little Feat, Maria Muldaur, Shawn Colvin and Leo Kottke, to name but a few.

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Boo & Brooks

More about State of the Union, In conversation:

How did you meet and when did you start playing music together?

Brooks: “Boo invited me to step in last minute to play at his annual Christmas concert. I played a solo set and then sat in with Boo for a few songs. Even though we had never played together before it had a real magic feel to it. I think both of us knew there was something unique happening and worth exploring”.

Boo: “Brooks came and played at one of my Christmas shows when there was so much snow my other guests couldn’t make it! It was magic and we decided to do more. We had actually met once before when Brooks interviewed me for a guitar magazine. Which is a bit like Muhammad Ali interviewing Eddie The Eagle….He is a guitar master!”.

What are the main differences in your guitar styles / playing and approach to songwriting?

Brooks: “On paper our two worlds are pretty far apart, but somehow we’re able to bring them together. It’s an overused phrase but I believe there is some real musical magic in State Of The Union. I like to think it gives us both the opportunity to showcase our ‘expected’ strengths, but also to explore and dig in to the other aspects of our music. In a way SOTU is an alter-ego”.

Boo: “Brooks is a bluesman (of great subtlety) from Georgia and I was in an 80’s indie band….and yet it worked right away. I think the route of why it works musically is both of us have a love of good time… a sense of rhythm. And we both love the craft of writing”.

What do you enjoy most about the duo’s live performances?

Brooks: “It’s the whole package - getting to create a pretty big sound with just two guitars and two voices. Audiences from our earlier tours know what I mean. It’s fun. It’s big. And I’m not aware of anyone else doing it exactly like SOTU”.

Boo: “It feels so much more than the sum of the parts…whenever we revisit SOTU it kicks into gear with ease, in a spooky way!”.

What does State of The Union mean / why did you pick this band name ?

Brooks: “Boo came up with the name. It represents us pretty well, I think. Two distinctly different musicians from different parts of the world with two different sets of influences coming together and making music. And even though on paper it shouldn’t work, there’s so much shared inspiration that it takes on a pretty cool life of its own”.