A bassist and songwriter around town since the days of Sinister Dane in the s, Williams has fronted two bands since the demise of the Dane, Sugardaddy and Getaway Car, before a very brief appearance a few years back with the short-lived Johnny Bliss.
The new group includes former Dane guitarist Jay Summers, the constantly gigging Grover Stewart on drums, and Jesse Gannon on keyboards. Then we played a second show a week later, opening for Kings Go Forth at the Firebird. After some additional time woodshedding, Williams feels that the next round of gigs will put the band firmly back into the local mix.
Williams started playing with Summers going on two decades ago, when Sinister Dane plucked the young guitarist out of his rhythm guitar role with Soul Funktion. Just creating songs in my basement was more fun. And with songs dating back to about , he eventually called on Stewart to add his own impressive drumming to the tracks. Gannon came aboard, fitting in time around his solo piano work and monthly gig as The Truth at The Delmar Lounge.
Summers had been playing a few cover gigs with a relative, but was otherwise not spending serious time playing. Though, like the rest, he was able to seamlessly blend in when called. You can listen for yourself, here , on SoundCloud. He can play naturally, as opposed to imitating anything.
He plays with a lot of soul. For Williams, he knew that pulling a band together today would be different from his earlier bands. Everybody used to have their band. I see Grover looking half-dead, halfway through the week. To be able to play the exact music I want to hear. But Grover knows everybody in St. When we approached Jesse, I said that it would be only the four of us.
