Classic male urban folk

10 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Modern Folk, FOLK: Urban Folk



Details:
KARL WILLIAMS


1985â¦an intimate clubâ¦a live album.

ââ¦Williams sings his song in a warm, sexy, wry tone, in a voice that has felt the influence of everyone from Hank Snow to John Sebastian," writes critic Ken Tucker, now of Entertainment Weekly and radioâs Fresh Air. âFirst-rate compositions...â And musicians second Tuckerâs evaluation many times over the years, covering Karl Williamsâ songs on major and independent labels.

Fast-forward to late 1999 and Williamsâ CD-single "To the New Century," a hard-edged anthem featuring toasts in 17 languages, is picked up by radio stations around the world, and the story of the songâs travels appears in Bruce Pollockâs âWorking Musiciansâ (HarperCollins, 2002).

In 2004 and 2005 Williamsâ songs for kids are aired on NBCâs TODAY Show.

But Karl Williamsâ ability as a songwriter hasnât kept him on any straight-and-narrow. Having spent most of the 70s working with kids with cognitive disabilities (the old phrase is âmental retardationâ), Williams took up a challenge from a noted author in 1985 and wrote a song especially for Speaking For Ourselves, a âself-advocacyâ group - folks with this same disability working for respect and for their civil rights.

Williamsâ songs began to provide a kind of soundtrack for the daily struggle of those in the self-advocacy movement - across the US and in Canada and England. Theyâve been performed before local, regional, national, and international audiences; published in books, magazines, and on websites; translated; used in videos and plays; and have earned Williams awards from ASCAP.

RESPECT: SONGS OF THE SELF-ADVOCACY MOVEMENT, the CD Williams produced and recorded with the US national group, was a candidate for Best Contemporary Folk Album in the 1998 Grammy Awards.

Williams has continued with his popular writing - his songs picked up by publishers and songpluggers â but heâs also followed his interestsâ¦and his heart. Williamsâ first children's CD, BIG FISH LITTLE FISH (2000), won high praise from both School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, and was added to a program of the Jane Goodall Institute. His second album for kids, UNCLE ROBOT: SONGS FOR YOUNG FAMILIES (2003) collected the same kind of critical acclaim.

With two as-told-to autobiographies (done with leaders in the self-advocacy movement); a play, based on one of these works; another play performed at last yearâs Philadelphia Fringe Festival; short stories presented by the Writing Aloud Series of Philadelphiaâs InterAct Theatre Company; an autobiographical novel (unpublished); and a recently completed third as-told-to book, this one with a graphic artist who has autismâ¦SingOut! Magazineâs comment on one of Williamsâ early songs might suit the man himself: âSomething of a classicâ¦â