New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Guitarist and composer Yasmin Williams, who continues her US headlining tour in Colorado this weekend, has announced a two-week tour of Europe in June. The tour kicks off with a set at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona on June 6, with shows in Paris, Utrecht, The Hague, London, Leeds, and Bristol, culminating in Copenhagen. on June 19. Tickets go on sale this Friday, March 21.
Williams's Nonesuch debut album, Acadia, was released to critical acclaim in October. Her most sonically expansive work to date, Acadia is nine original, mostly instrumental tracks written and produced by Williams, and features her on various guitars, banjo, calabash drum, tap shoes, and kora. She is joined by an eclectic cast of collaborators—including Immanuel Wilkins, Dom Flemons, Aoife O'Donovan, William Tyler, Darlingside, and others—creating a folk music that reflects the wide range of musical influences that have inspired her throughout her life. You can get it and hear it here.
"Williams is now making some of the most purely beautiful guitar music anywhere," exclaims the Guardian. Mojo, in its four-star review, says: "Forgoing cynicism, she looks out on the world with unbound curiosity and zeal, every coruscant melody and glowing harmony another discovery." Uncut, naming Acadia an Album of the Year, declares its songs "so full of imagination and life-enhancing radiance that you could wallow in their fragrance all day. The technique is dazzling ... Gorgeous and then some."
Yasmin Williams recently stopped by the NPR offices in Washington, DC, to perform a Tiny Desk Concert of songs from Acadia and more. "Williams is a fingerstyle guitarist who taps, slaps and slides up and down the fretboard of her instrument with a commanding sense of scenery that flickers between the strings," says NPR's Lars Gotrich. "Storytellers build worlds; at the Tiny Desk, Williams invites us into hers." You can watch it here:
YASMIN WILLIAMS ON TOUR:
Mar 21 Swallow Hill Music Denver, CO
Mar 22 Black Sheep Colorado Springs, CO
Mar 23 The Armory Fort Collins, CO
Mar 26 Treefort Music Fest Boise, ID
Apr 16 118 North Philadelphia, PA
Apr 25 Biscuits and Banjos Festival Durham, NC
May 4 Mountain Stage Morgantown, WV
Jun 6 Primavera Sound Barcelona, SPAIN
Jun 9 La Boule Noire Paris, FRANCE
Jun 11 EKKO Utrecht, NETHERLANDS
Jun 12 Paard The Hague, NETHERLANDS
Jun 14 EartH Theatre London, UK
Jun 15 Belgrave Music Hall Leeds, UK
Jun 16 Lantern Hall Bristol, UK
Jun 19 RUST Copenhagen, DENMARK
Jul 10 Rock the Ruins* Indianapolis, IN
Jul 11 MGM Northfield Park* Cleveland, OH
Jul 12 Interlochen Center for the Arts* Interlochen, MI
Jul 13 Sweetwater Performance Pavilion* Fort Wayne, IN
Jul 15 The Factory* Chesterfield, MO
Jul 16 Grinders KC* Kansas City, MO
* w/St. Paul and the Broken Bones and The Wood Brothers.
