Greg Williams profile picture

Greg Williams

About Me

Greg Williams has been an active guitarist, composer, and teacher in the Sacramento area for over 20 years. He has perfomed, written and recorded in various musical disciplines including contemporary classical, acid jazz, folk/rock, heavy metal, and specialized music for radio, television and film. His works have been broadcast on NPR, Capitol Public Radio, and other local television and radio stations, and he co-wrote the 2003-4 theme music for the Sacramento Kings basketball team. He has been awarded 3 Sacramento music awards for his work in the acid jazz/funk group The Mind Club, and has been featured in Electronic Musician and 20th Century Guitar magazines.His most recent work is the 2007 CD "A Circle of Hidden Intentions", in which he combines solo acoustic guitar and live-looping technology to create minimalistic, multi-layered, grooving instrumental pieces all perfomed live in hs home studio. Greg performs regularly throughout Northern California, and he has performed in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Greg has also played prestigious electro-acoustic music festivals such as the Edinburgh Fringe Arts Festival in Scotland, the Y2K7 International Live-Looping Festival in Santa Cruz CA, and the Northern California Festival of New American music.Greg received his Bachelors Degree in classical guitar performance at CSU Sacramento under Dr. Richard Savino, and his Master's Degree in Composition under Stephen Blumberg. Greg is currently on the faculty at CSU Sacramento teaching beginning guitar classes and general education music history classes, and spends his summers and winters performing, composing, and recording. Greg also enjoys camping, hiking, and hanging out at the pub.This video was shot on 11/17/2006 at The Blue Room in Sacramento, CA by my friend Dave Lynch. The song is called 'Twelve'. In case you're wondering about the backdrop, I was opening for a Yes tribute band called 'Parallels' - check 'em out, they're great!

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 19/02/2007
Band Website: www.gregwilliamsguitar.com
Band Members: Just little old me.
Influences: Jimmy Page, J.S. Bach, Ralph Towner, Steve Reich, Mike Oldfield, Julian Bream, Frank Zappa, Heitor Villa-Lobos, the sublime 16th Century Italian lute music of Francesco Canova da Milano, M.C. Escher, Balinese Gamelan music, West African polyrhythmic drumming, John Bonham, John Renbourn, Michael Hedges, Steve Howe, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix.
Sounds Like: A mix between Steve Reich and Led Zeppelin, as played by a one-man acoustic guitar orchestra...or something.
Record Label: Fangboy Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

My music now available on Magnatune.com

I am thrilled to have my looping music available for download and licensing on www.magnatune.com. Magnatune is a great web-based label with, get this, ideals. I know, it sounds like an oxymoron. Pleas...
Posted by on Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:30:00 GMT

Keep Santa Cruz Weird

In the loopy news category, I just returned from a 3-day stint playing at the Y2K7 International Live-Looping Festival in Santa Cruz, CA. It was a pleasure and an honor to be associated with such a wo...
Posted by on Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:13:00 GMT

My Gear

In case you might be wondering what gear I use to perform and record, I thought I would include a blog entry with a complete list:  Custom handcrafted steel-string acoustic guitar with L.R. Baggs...
Posted by on Wed, 21 Feb 2007 22:32:00 GMT