An Evening with Jack Williams

Kim and I were lucky enough to see Jack Williams in concert last night. He was playing at the Blake Library in Stuart, FL.

In case you’re not familiar with Jack, he is a singer-songwriter who plays “acoustic music.” I guess you’d call him a folk singer (if you felt the need to label him), but he is also a storyteller, a comedian, and a traveling philosopher.

The concert was a lot of fun and Jack was great. His voice was weathered and bluesy, and his guitar playing was phenomenal.

Several years ago, I got to see Michael Jordan play basketball. Each time I would see him play I would come away wishing that I could do something, anything, in my life as well as Michael Jordan plays basketball. After seeing Jack Williams in concert, I am left with the desire to be able to do something, anything, as well as he plays guitar.

It’s a little funny that Jack is such a virtuoso on the guitar because when he walked on stage, my first thought was, “Jeez, that guitar is sure beat up.” And it’s true. Jack’s guitar has seen better days. The top of the guitar is faded and delaminated, and the pickguard is so old and worn that it is falling off the guitar. Even so, the sweet, soulful music Jack created with that old guitar was amazing.

On stage, Jack told stories, cracked jokes, and talked about his beloved south, all the while strumming and picking his guitar. The sound of the guitar was omnipresent. I got the feeling that at home, Jack sits and play his guitar while he talks to his wife Judy (who was also at the concert). It’s somewhat comical to think of Jack and Judy sitting at home in Arkansas, talking about the weather, a neighbor, the bills, or anything else while Jack provides background music for their lives. I don’t think there is ever a time when Jack isn’t playing his guitar. It must make it hard to drive and play guitar at the same time, but somehow Jack manages.

During the concert, Jack did several of his own songs (Eternity & Main, Mama Lou, A Natural Man, Frog in the Kitchen) as well as a couple of other people’s songs (Buckets of Rain by Bob Dylan), but the highlight (at least for me) was the last song he did.

Jack has a way of ending a concert that is truly unique. It is to music what stream of consciousness writing is to literature. For about twenty minutes, Jack played and sang anything that came into his head. During the course of his finale I remember hearing such diverse songs as “Young at Heart,” “Girl from Ipanema,” “Misty,” “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” “The Weight,” and several other songs, both strange and familiar. Jack also made up a couple of mini-songs during the finale.

Jack Williams is a great performer and his concert provided one of the most enjoyable evenings I have had in quite some time. If you ever get the chance to see Jack in person, I would highly recommend it.

By the way, while talking to Jack and Judy, I found out about a great place to order hard to find music CDs and DVDs (as well as Jack’s CDs and DVD). Check out www.rediscovermusic.com. I got a copy of the catalog and they have a bunch of great stuff.