Yasmin Williams' guitar playing is spring-like and buoyant, a soothing rain shower of notes or green shoots reaching for the sun. Early on in her career, she developed an idiosyncratic style that blended tapping techniques and playing the instrument flat on her lap like a dobro. This was the approach on her 2018 debut, a D.I.Y. instrumental folk record that unexpectedly made it onto Billboard's Heatseekers chart. She was then picked up by North Carolina indie
Spinster, which released her more refined follow-up, 2021's remarkable
Urban Driftwood. The Virginia musician's upward trajectory continues on
Acadia, her third record and first for the legendary
Nonesuch label. It's also her most diverse release to date, introducing a more layered sound that for the first time includes vocals, electric guitar, and numerous guests.
While
Williams' inventive compositions are their own draw, it's interesting to hear what she does with a more established label, increased notoriety, and presumably a larger budget. From the start,
Acadia is exploratory and confident, even joyous. Opener "Cliffwalk" consists of little more than guitar and bones -- courtesy of fellow folk traveler
Dom Flemons -- but sounds exultant, a technical wonder played with intensity for the back seats. "Hummingbird" is another winsome romp of peaks and valleys featuring fiddler
Tatiana Hargreaves and banjoist
Allison de Groot. On the celestial "Virga," Boston dream folk band
Darlingside adds lush harmonies, as does folk singer/songwriter
Aoife O'Donovan on the sweet "Dawning." There are percussionists scattered throughout -- sometimes on drums (
Marcus Gilmore,
Malick Koly) and sometimes on foot (dancer
Nic Gareiss) -- all sympathetic players in
Williams's unique little world. Closing out the nine-track set are "Nectar" and "Malamu," a pair of songs that see
Williams stretching out beyond her acoustic roots. The former fuses a tight trip-hop drum pattern with mathy post-rock, while the latter builds into a full-on jazz fusion session with dueling saxophone and electric guitar solos. As technically gifted as she is,
Williams also plays with passion, and
Acadia is easily her most ambitious release to date. ~ Timothy Monger
