Guitarist Yasmin Williams has never quite fit a simple story. She came to the guitar first through video games, moved from electric to acoustic, and developed a solo fingerpicking approach that wouldn’t settle into familiar styles. Folk would show through, but little of the American primitive a listener might expect, and a variety of international and unrelated domestic influences would help her travel unique paths.
She had a sort of breakthrough in early 2021 with Urban Driftwood, a multi-dimensional release coming out of COVID-19 and inspired in part by the political protests of the area. She performed thoughtful, bright compositions that offered relief and revealed her growing proficiency as a writer alongside her formidable technical skills. Almost four years later, Williams expands her work even more for Acadia, drawing on a range of influences while incorporating a variety of guest musicians for a full sound that proves to be her best and most ambitious work yet.
CD/digital opener “Cliffwalk” sets up the album well (the vinyl release has a different sequencing). It comes from material Williams worked out for the Newport Folk Festival in 2021. Williams has a bit of country in the opening licks, but it soon turns into an idiosyncratic romp. The rhythm bones come in thanks to Don Flemons, and his appearance signals Williams’ broader approach to Acadia. Flemons, best known for his role in Carolina Chocolate Drops, is both a multi-instrumentalist and a roots scholar. Scholarship pervades the record, yet it never sounds clinical (it also seldom sounds like traditional roots music). Williams constantly sounds as if she’s about to take off, a fitting sensation given that so much of Acadia deals with her own coming into her own as a musician, with “seeds” of writing finally coming to fruition (she could have believed in it well before now).
“Hummingbird” does allow her to tuck into more traditional sounds. Allison de Groot (banjo) and Tatiana Hargreaves (fiddle) join Yasmin Williams here, and their prowess as a duo comes through. The joyful cut doesn’t quite turn into bluegrass, but it comes as close as anything Williams has recorded. It contrasts nicely with predecessor “Harvest”, in which guitarist Kaki King (a good partner for Williams) and Darian Donovan Thomas (on violin and distinctly not fiddle) help push the song away from any sort of roots foundation into a vibrant and reflective mode that bounces too much for a chamber ensemble but has refined sensibility.
Williams composed “Dream Lake” to reflect the floating feeling inspired by the joy of “making it” in music and the need to stay grounded in the music itself. Malik Koly plays drums, and Williams plays an electrified guitar to a psychedelic effect. Here, she embraces something between jazz and rock, hinting at other routes she could have chosen, even while continuing to sound like herself, albeit the most she stretches her central aesthetic on the record. It’s spacey, even a touch jam-y, but it circles back to an organizing motif that holds it together.
“Virga” adds vocals to Acadia‘s sounds, provided in this case by Darlingside. The harmonies function almost as a woodwind section, creating an ethereal element to a record that often abides in sturdy imminence. That feeling intersects with the recording technique that allows us to hear Yasmin Williams’ fingers on the strings just before the lyrics begin. The song is at once unearthly and inevitably present. “Dawning” draws all the elements together: gentle folk picking, soft vocals, rhythm bones, and even “percussive dancing” (compliments of Nic Gareiss, also a de Groot collaborator).
The track isn’t folk or indie-folk (despite the help from Aoife O’Donovan). It’s technically skilled but not flashy by Williams’ standards. Maybe most notable is that it’s a cooperative effort, as a quartet of artists realize a vision that remains distinctly that of Williams. As she finds new ways to write, play, and collaborate, Yasmin Williams continues to make increasingly intriguing and effective music, suggesting that, as that title might suggest, a new era is just beginning for her.