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"Randall Williams has hit the musical jackpot with "Praying For Land". This album contains meaningful stories told by a master singer-songwriter and supported by well crafted melodies and instrumentation."Praying for Land" is outstanding in all respects.Steve Clarke
www.erinradio.ca Its Randall’s voice you hear first. Thoughtful words seeping through a mellow baritone allude to the years of arias and oratorios that it took to finally ditch the bowtie in deference to the six-string and a button-down shirt.Youll hear his right hand pop and bass-funk-thunk its way through songs, songs that could have been sweet campfire tunes in a previous incarnation until they were thrown to the muse of rhythm.Theres still plenty of room for smooth fingerpicking, but it has to get around the tuneful taste for groove and color.
Color like the rich chords of a dozen alternate guitar tunings makes sense, at least as much as three capos at a time turning six strings into a musical clothesline from which to hang songs from a life of travel.whereisrandall is more than a website- its an attitude of openness: the ability to be at home in a Bangkok slum or a Senegalese village, at the Kennedy Center or the Fine Arts Palace in Brussels sandwiched between a twitchy orchestra and a full house, or shoeless on the floor of your living room.Randall has sung in cafés, restaurants, churches, pubs, homes, and concert halls in more than 35 countries. He speaks more languages than his guitar has strings - and will pull Estonian or Japanese from his song bag if an evening allows.It comes down to how we love not where we draw the line. Randall writes from a life of living strong and loving true all the faith one can muster, placing so much energy and time on the long shot, and then redefining and rebuilding anew, again.He counts three albums to date, the songs of his own travels, the fiery arcs of love affairs, and making spontaneous magic with musicians. Each compass point is new opportunity to bridge the imagined gaps between people and place, between where we have been, and who we can become.- bio by R&R
It is no surprise that Randall’s first CD is entitled Travel Songs. The 8 songs range from travel ballads like "Solvitur Ambulando" (it is solved by walking) to the melodic "Songbird," a quiet tribute to the late Eva Cassidy. His sophomore effort, Brave New World, was recorded with songstress Rowan Israel. The cycle chronicles the stormy voyage of two best friends who are each - on their own - learning slowly and sometimes painfully about this thing called loving. said Miranda: "o brave new world that hast such people in it!"Randall’s third CD is another sketch of a moment in time, this one with Claudia SanSoucie. First Takes is a compilation of Randall and Claudia’s favorite songs from a late-night recording session in Baltimore. It’s full of the joy of discovering a new musical friend, and the magic of the summer they met, only months before.
A word about who, why, how, and what i teach:WHO: all ages. a motivated six-year old can gain lots from guitar lessons, as can an adult who feels that their musical years have already passed them by. most important here is that you feel motivated to play. if you’re motivated, you can’t stop playing, because you have to - it feeds you so much. making the transition from "wanting to play" to "needing to play" as quickly as possible is the key to progress.WHY: i teach because i love teaching. i teach because music can change lives: it changed mine.HOW: if you can’t teach something, then you haven’t learned it. a student needs to thoroughly understand why something is the way it is. this is very true of fingerpicking, capo techniques, and open tunings. most intermediate students can learn the basics of open tuning in about 30 minutes, if they know why it works. i adapt my teaching to fit what students are ready for. if a student needs notes or tab written out, we do that. if they are ready for ear training, then we work on ear training. any teacher should be an excellet listener.WHAT: students typically dive first into their own musical vocabulary to find songs they already know and love. i teach adaptation rather than repetition. if you want to play jimi hendrix note for note, then i’m not your guy. if you want to figure out how to adapt peter gabriel for open tuning or how to develop a strumming and picking style that will enable you to play hundreds of songs, then call me. i can teach you why things work the way they do - so that you can create and interpret by yourself.
