More cleaning around my soon-to-be sold house, I came across a great DVD. Guitarmageddon: Josh Williams, Andy Falco and Chris Eldridge Live at the Station Inn. This was recorded around 2007, was put out by Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, and the three of them look young and energetic. If you get a chance to watch or purchase this DVD, or come across clips on YouTube, be sure to watch it!
This got me to thinking about Josh Williams again and what an amazing bluegrass musician he truly is. If you ever get to see the 1994 documentary Gather at the River: A Bluegrass Celebration, which covers the 1993 IBMA World of Bluegrass convention, you will see the first incarnation of Pete Wernick’s Young Bluegrass All-Stars. This band included very young versions of Williams (on banjo), Chris Thile (mandolin), Cody Kilby (guitar) and Michael Cleveland (fiddle), all of whom went on to bigger fame in the bluegrass community. Williams would later join Special Consensus on mandolin, then spend a good deal of time playing guitar with Rhonda Vincent and The Rage. He would also win the IBMA Guitar Player of the Year award three times!
He would leave The Rage due to some addiction troubles, but would form a solo band, as well as sit in with a number of bluegrass and country artists. Around 2008, I got a call from Jim Lauderdale asking if I would pick up Williams from the Detroit Metro Airport and drive him to a gig in Grand Rapids, about three hours away. I agreed, but then we hit one of the worst snowstorms in west Michigan, so the three hours turned to about six hours. Moreover, Williams was in a depressed mood due to the untimely death of mandolinist Butch Baldassari earlier that day. But we kept in touch for a while (I would always refer to him as “Colonel,” due to his home state of Kentucky), but slowly lost contact.
Williams would eventually kick the addiction habit and get back to performing with Rhonda Vincent for a few more years, as well as tour on a Tony Rice package. A few years back, he decided to leave touring completely, citing spending more time with his family. His output since then has been very sparse, but fortunately, he has not been forgotten by those that have worked with him in the past and are still active.
I bring Williams up now for a few good reasons. Currently, we have some great young guitarists in the bluegrass fold, most notably Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle. I am taking nothing away from these two – I find them both as incredibly talented players. However, there were some amazing bluegrass flatpickers in the previous generation of bluegrass that has slowly been forgotten. As for the Guitarmageddon video, Eldridge gained cred performing with The Punch Brothers, and Falco has been a highlight of the band The Infamous Stringdusters. Williams should not be forgotten at all. His body of work with Special C, Rhonda Vincent, and solo projects prove that he is a fantastic instrumentalist to be highly recognized on his own.
I have found a few videos of him on YouTube recently, showing up for a jam at the Acoustic Shoppe with members of The Chapmans, and performing on some tribute projects. I hope to get in touch with him soon, but I hope more that he can get back on stage a lot in the near future to showcase what a talent he really is.
Chew on it and comment.
Luegra 