The Williamson Brothers
| "Beautiful, graceful, yet still lonesome and beckoning."
That's how writer Jonathan Colcord sums up the music of Tony and Gary Williamson.
The "warm and friendly" sound of this duet features smooth vocal harmonies
with mandolin and guitar accompaniment, a style handed down by their ancestors
in central North Carolina. Recent performances for the Williamson Brothers have included the Airforce museum in Savannah, GA where they were joined by fiddle legend Vassar Clements and Jeff and Bobby Autry. Their new album, “Still Light of the Evening” was chosen as one of the five best Bluegrass albums of the year by the Chicago Tribune. This release on the Mapleshade label has also received great notices from Sing Out! and Bluegrass Unlimited. Previously the brothers had toured central California and performed as part of the Carolina Roots series at Guilford College, NC and at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. The brothers also received an Indie nomination in Southern Gospel music for their album “Let Us Cross Over the River” on Doobie Shea Records. This album and their premiere release, “My Rocky River Home”, have received much acclaim from both Bluegrass and Americana audiences. Also, Tony Williamson has been featured on mandolin at a number of venues, including with David Grisman at the Woodruff Center in Atlanta, GA and for vocal legend Luciano Pavarotti at a post-concert reception in Raleigh, NC. Tony was also included in the Mel Bay book “Mandolin 2000: Featuring solos by the world’s finest mandolinists.” |
Pickin’ With the Best In 1994, Tony and Gary Williamson received the "Recorded Event of the Year" award by the International Bluegrass Music Association for their work on "A Touch of the Past" by Larry Perkins & Friends. A host of Nashville superpickers also contributed to this recording including Earl Scruggs, Alison Krauss, Vassar Clements and the Osborne Brothers. Gary Williamson composed and performs the title song, which Garrison Keillor has featured in the NPR broadcast "A Prairie Home Companion" and on his inspirational recording, "Climbing Up On The Rough Side". In the autumn of 1998, Tony was nominated by the IBMA in the gospel category for his work on the Doobie Shea release, "Living On The Hallelujah Side." Recent appearances include the Old Rock School at Valdese, NC, where they shared the stage with music legend Ralph Stanley. |
| Roots That Run Deep Tony and Gary Williamson perform the old-time style of music that dates back nine generations in central North Carolina. In fact, the title song of their CD, “My Rocky River Home” chronicles the experiences of their great-grandfather, Noah Williamson, a confederate soldier during the Civil War. Tony and Gary’s grandfather, Alfred, made his own musical instruments (his banjo is in the N.C. Museum of History) and inspired his grandchildren, who began playing music around 1957. Recent Mandolin Central release "All For Naught", a collection of solos for vintage instruments by Tony Williamson, was dedicated to this musical patriarch. By the 1960s, with Tony on mandolin and his brother Gary on banjo, they were winning prizes at many of the fiddler's conventions, including First Place Mandolin at the "World Championships" in Union Grove, NC and Galax, VA, and First Place Band at Union Grove, NC. In 1968 the Williamson Brothers recorded "John Henry" for Follett Publishing Co. for an anthology called "Discovering Music Together". Also included were the rock group "Blood Sweat & Tears" and the Boston Symphony. The brothers also recorded with the Bluegrass Gentlemen; and then, along with child prodigy fiddler, J.. B. Prince, as the Green Valley Ramblers for Revonah Records. Later, they accompanied Jerry Stuart on his "Rocky Run" album, produced by Barry Poss for County Records. Tony Williamson's original, "Land of the Dead" was included. Most of these performances feature Gary and Tony Williamson's distinctive voices. "The Delmore Brothers meet Bill Monroe for a Sunday set of guitar/mando... Tony's straight-ahead bluegrass pickin' is fluid and clear, while the vocals...[are] raw and authentic..." Dirty Linen (#76, June/July '98) “Now this is what I call REAL music--unpretentious, heartfelt traditional numbers sung as only brothers can sing them.” --Dave Higgs, Bluegrass Breakdown “Tony and Gary...show why brother teams are hard to beat. Highly rewarding album...!” Bluegrass Unlimited Jan 03 |
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For recordings and booking information contact
Mandolin Central Publishing, Inc
PO Box 728
Siler City NC 27344
(919-663-3551)
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