Tim Williams and the Electro-Fires
Imagine, if you can, a front porch where Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, Hula Hattie, Flaco Jimenez and Bob Marley meet often and discover just how much they have in common. Tim’s music would fit right in.
Born in Southern California in the late 1940s, Tim Williams was both a published poet and an emerging coffee house phenomenon by his late teens in the mid-1960s. His first LP recording, Blues Full Circle (produced by Arhoolie Records legend Chris Strachwitz, and boasting appearances by L.A. blues veterans Pee Wee Crayton and George “Harmonica” Smith) came out when he was just 20 years old.
Although most often known within the context of the blues, Williams grew up hearing (and able to play) everything from the Bob Wills and Sons of the Pioneers music his parents preferred, to the Mexican and Hawaiian music which were part of the musical melting pot of the Los Angeles area.
Quickly mastering acoustic and electric guitar, banjo, and mandolin, Tim was also introduced at a young age to the rudiments of Hawaiian steel guitar by his grandfather. Over a short period of time he became extremely fluent in the Delta bottleneck and Bluegrass Dobro techniques as well. When he moved to Vancouver in 1970, weary of America’s wars and assassinations, he immediately found work as a studio musician playing on gospel, folk and country recordings, plus commercial jingles selling everything from weed killer to Toyotas.
In addition, he taught guitar and continued to tour as a headliner in smaller venues and an opening act in the larger ones. His live shows moved away from the “blues-only” approach he had been taking to include more traditional country and western swing music, and his growing body of original songs.
Tim is joined (this time!) at MusicFest by the Electro-Fires, his long-time electric unit of Ron Casat, keyboards and vocals, Suitcase James, bass, Kevin Belzner, drums, and Mike Clark, tenor sax
“…one of the finest Canadian blues ensembles of the last three decades” – The Edmonton Journal
Much more than a blues musician, Tim has played with Moroccan Gnawa master Magid Bekas, Malian Griot Boubacar Traore, Classical Indian mandola artist Snehashish Mozumder, English guitar hero Sir Martin Carthy, and multi-instrument wizard David Lindley
