Guitarist

No other solo American guitarist this century has impacted that fecund scene quite like William Tyler. After crucial stints in Silver Jews and Lambchop, this adopted son of Nashville emerged at the dawn of the last decade with a string of inquisitive albums that paired the measure of his country rearing and classical enthusiasm with his ardor for postmodern experimentation, field recordings and static drifts folded beneath exquisite melodies.

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William Tyler

National Sawdust

Yasmin Williams sits on her leather couch, her guitar stretched across her lap horizontally with its strings turned to the sky. She taps on the fretboard with her left hand as her right hand plucks a kalimba placed on the guitar’s body. Her feet, clad in tap shoes, keep rhythm on a mic’d wooden board placed under her. Even with all limbs in play, it’s mind boggling that the melodic and percussive sounds that emerge are made by just one musician, playing in real time. With her ambidextrous and pedidextrous, multi-instrumental techniques of her own making and influences ranging from video games to West African griots subverting the predominantly white male canon of fingerstyle guitar, Yasmin Williams is truly a guitarist for the new century. So too is her stunning sophomore release, Urban Driftwood, an album for and of these times. Though the record is instrumental, its songs follow a narrative arc of 2020, illustrating both a personal journey and a national reckoning, through Williams’ evocative, lyrical compositions.

Yasmin Williams / William Tyler

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

Two of today’s most acclaimed guitarist-composers present a new collaborative work for themselves and chamber ensemble. Tyler plays "cosmic country," folk, indie folk and pop rock. Based in Alexandria, VA, Williams is an acoustic fingerstyle guitarist with an unorthodox, modern style of playing. She utilizes various techniques including alternate tunings, percussive hits, and lap tapping in her music to great effect.

Guitarist

William Tyler

Events

Past events

May 13, 2025

William Tyler · National Sawdust

Sep 9, 2023

Yasmin Williams / William Tyler · Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

About

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