David Williams

...And the ending, like David and Jeremi singing Rock 'n' Roll, is the consistent closure of a ceerchio looking to the United States and its archetypes with a fresh eye, again, not easy but certainly exciting, in a sense also ironic as the music of the singer reads, illuminating how it works on the image and sound, now random, now out of sync, but now on the rise, which is the way in which the film precedes just like any self-respecting concert. One of absolute revelation of festival and one of the most beautiful non-fiction films of the year. - Superga Cinema

Singer-songwriter David Williams lands his song “Sunday Morning” on the indie-music-focused Website Daytrotter.com with the featured video of the day today.
The video was recorded at the Huichica Music Festival (other notable acts at the festival were J. Mascis, Richard Swift, Fruit Bats, among others). Williams’ entire performance is also available to watch or download. The video and sound quality is suprisingly high quality, and, of course, “Sunday Morning” is a lovely little number unto itself. Williams says that rain forced the gig indoors to the makeshift stage; but I think that just adds to the ambiance and the overall stripped-down aesthetic that Williams produces.

The tour to and from this festival is the focus of a documentary film, Intro, directed by Brandon Cahoon, to be released later this year. The film was nominated for Best International Documentary in the Torino Film Festival and screened December 2011. Williams also recently scored his first film, Parade. - City Weekly

For four years now, the Torino Film Festival has paid special attention to documentary filmmaking, convinced that it is one of the most intriguing, free and surprising film languages around. This is why the Festival promotes a prize for the best international documentary, having identified this genre as one of the most up-to-date forms of reality cinema.
The competition is reserved to twelve to fifteen feature-length documentaries of recent production which have yet to screen in Italy, whether in movie theaters or on television. The documentaries may feature in any of the Festival’s competitive and non-competitive sections, with the exception of the specific Italiana.doc competition, and are selected for the innovation and originality of their narrative structure and visual solutions, as well as for the relevance of the contemporary themes that are treated. - Torino Film Festival

David Williams
Parade OST
Self-Released
Street: 08.19
David Williams = Bob Dylan + Devendra Banhart
This is the soundtrack that finally completed the film Parade, written in 2005 and shown in festivals in 2008. Writer and director Brandon Cahoon had been looking for just the right music to go with his film, and having heard David Williams’ music at Slowtrain, commissioned him to write the score. The result is a soundtrack that captures the poignancy of adolescence and the loneliness of the central Utah desert, themes that the film is based around. Any film score is a part of a greater work, and as such, tends not to hold up as well on its own; this one is no exception. That being said, there are three or four songs on here that are as good as anything Williams has recorded, and possibly more accessible. For the full experience, though, you need to see the film, too. –Nate Housley - Salt Lake Underground Magazine

A solitary musician drives his car through the endless American countryside, accompanied by the musical instruments he plays in small clubs and on improvised stages, where he performs for free. David crosses cities and landscapes that blend with the music of his guitar, but also of a piano he comes across in a diner. His constant search for musical perfection is stronger than his desire to find physical and emotional stability, something that might not reconcile with the life a traveling musician.



“David’s music is my mistress. It keeps devastating secrets from me. It provokes and challenges me. Intro is my earnest attempt to understand this man, his music and its mysterious power over me.” - TFF (Torino Film Festival)

"There’s something magic about David Williams and his songs. He has a really broad range that’s a little unheard-of these days in singer/songwriters. David can play rock songs and country songs and mellow songs and dirty songs. It all seems effortless. And that’s the magic part, it just flows out of him. He can go from one of his own to a beautiful blues standard he makes his own. He’s just incredible. The fact he is unknown blows my mind. That’s part of the charm. We know a secret no one else knows."
Anna Brozek - Slowtrain Records
- City Weekly

It sometimes amazes me what can come from one man and his guitar. Beyond that, it makes me proud when that man lives in the great state of Utah. Portland Sessions (Western Interior Seaway) showcases Williams’ fragile voice remarkably well. All of it was recorded in Portland with Adam Selzer, who has recorded with such recent greats as The Decemberists and M. Ward. The increase in quality highlights subtle details that help elevate the feeling of this album, giving detail to backup vocals, double bass backdrops and even an electric guitar. The end product is a truly beautiful album that consistently emanates with sublime emotion. David Williams truly deserves more fame than he might even want.

–Ross Solomon - SLUG Magazine

DAVID WILLIAMS - WESTERN INTERIOR SEAWAY (SELF RELEASED) Music just seems to flood out of David Williams, and if you're lucky enough, you'll be standing within earshot of him when it starts. In these moments you'll wish you had the foresight to record the event so you can share it with everyone you know so you didn't have to try to find the words to explain just how magical it was. Western Interior Seaway is what happens when the one person who happens to be in the same room with David and his guitar is an amazing producer, and the room happens to be his professional recording studio. Recorded at Type Foundry Studios in Portalnd, OR with Adam Selzer (The Decemberists, M. Ward, Mirah, Laura Gibson), this album is more of a time capsule than anything. It's not an album of songs slaved over by a perfectionist that's been sitting on them for years waiting for the chance to record them, but rather just a glimpse at how these songs felt to David at the moment they were committed to tape. Adam Selzer has an arsenal of equipment at his disposal and has a tasteful way of shaping the songs he hears into a finished product that makes me feel so fortunate that it was him who was there at the birth of Western Interior Seaway and not just a cassette recorder in an empty room. I don't expect his music to move everyone the way it has moved me, and by no means is this going to be the best recording by David Williams, but it's definitely the best album I've heard this year and will be a favorite for years to come.

Chris Brozek - Slowtrain

So, this is what happens when vultures and the desert wind of Southern Utah pick away at the bones of Pop music! "Summer" is no romp through green pastures or idyllic meadows. It’s a straight shot through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. But DAMN, does that hot air feel good! Though thoroughly lo-fi, Summer has the immediate intimacy of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. Lonely songs with catchy melodies are haunted by the presence of David Williams’ emotive, fragile voice. It’s both hurried and hushed, whispering warnings from somewhere out there in the bleak remoteness. Williams’ heartbreaking vocals are displayed most beautifully on the sad-bastard folk tune “Shame”. Architecturally, his songs are sturdy enough to hold up Brill Building ornamentation, yet he shows brave restraint. Instead of crowding the sonic space with horns, strings, and trickery, he opts to strip the structure bare, leaving only guitar and voice. Occasionally, fragmented drums and keyboards will sound in the distance, but the music always remains skeletal, ghostly, and sparse. The vastness of the desert has clearly taught Williams about the beauty of openness and contrast. And when a song is good enough, the human voice can sound as grand as an orchestra.

Chrisr at CD Baby - CD Baby