paul williams

I was born in Cardiff, Wales 49 years ago and have been performing music in some shape or form for nearly 30 of those. I've loved celtic folk stuff all my life and have been performing almost nothing else for the last five or six years. I've also been performing solo a lot and I'm enjoying the simplicity of it as well as the focus it demands. From 1999 until late October '06 I was living on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, a rare jewel, one of the most amazing places on the planet surely. There, and in the Irish pubs and bars in Honolulu, I played around 500 gigs between Dec '04 and Sept '06. Then I came back to Japan, where I lived for 13 years before my Hawaii adventures began, and in May '07 I made the move to Tokyo. Quite a challenge for this nature boy living in one of the world's biggest urban jungles... During seven years in Hawaii I also played mandolin and bouzouki in the long-standing Americana/island music 5-piece "The Lost Pelican Band" and as one half of "The Mahalo Brothers" with inspirational world music singer-songwriter Jivan. For a spell in '03 I was honored to play mandolin alongside Hawaiian music legend Liko Martin and to feature on his "Surf and Bay Blues" CD. I love that role just as much, when I can settle in and just play while someone else takes the center stage. Since moving back to Japan I've renewed my musical partnership with my longtime friend, guitarist and vocalist Chris Knobler. Chris and I have begun a multi-genre guitar/mando combo, tackling everything from our respective standards of rock and blues and acoustic folk, to recent chart stuff, J-pop, reggae, soul, country, 60's 70's and 80's standards, with the emphasis on entertaining. We were playing a regular monthly gig at Molly Malone's in Hiroshima City for the last two years.I'm playing solo around the Irish pubs in Tokyo and other cities in Japan, as well as playing mandolin in a 5-piece Irish Folk band 'The Mutiny'. And the road goes ever on and on..YOROSHIKU!!I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4Video clips at UstreamCURRENT MOON moon cyclesNEW CD.. Jan 2009 16 tracks recorded mainly live on stage in Hawaii - 2004-08