Music News

Premiere: Rob Williams, Weathering the Storm

About trains, "Only Heaven Knows"

Photo: Peter Beliaev

Singer-songwriter Rob Williams is known for his compelling, character-driven songs, and on his fourth album, Weathering the Storm, Vol. 1, Williams shares his most moving and intimate work. An album of beauty and balance, Williams blends free-wheeling classic country with a modern consciousness.

Williams explained his take on honesty with this example: “You know when a friend asks how you are, and you say ‘fine?’ when what you really wanna say is ‘I’ve been going through this terrible pain.'”  His candid reaction led Williams to the equally honest lyrics, “And I think I will recover/Yes I think I will be fine/But I’m gonna need some help/And it’s gonna take some time.”

As David Allen Coe famously told Steve Goodman, country songs require specific topics (mama, trains, trucks, prison, getting drunk), and Williams told Elmore, “Every songwriter needs a train song.” He recalled doing a photo shoot in New York in the early morning hours, and a six-hour railway ride home in the Quiet Car (aka Hangover Car). “So, this is my train song. It’s not glamorous or gritty. No one gets robbed or killed. The train doesn’t derail at high speed going down a mountain. No one rides across the country in a boxcar. It’s just the unfolding of ordinary events (with a few embellishments) of an Amtrak ride from NYP to RVR.” (Click HERE for the full story.)

Williams honed his talent for memorable music in bands Contocook Line and Joe Buck, Jr. before releasing his solo album, A Place in the Sun, in 2013. In 2015, his second solo album, Southern FM, showcased his expansive, nuanced acoustic roots rock, and his third, An Hour Before Daylight, his knack for gripping narratives.

Learn more about Rob Williams HERE

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