Yasmin Williams @ Union Stage [DC] - 11/22/2021
Yasmin Williams at Union Stage in Washington D.C. (Photo ©2021 Mauricio Castro)
Northern Virginia native Yasmin Williams has had a banner 2021. Starting in January with her album Urban Driftwood, she made waves this summer with both a Newport Folk Festival and Tiny Desk Concert slot and capped it off with a ‘hometown’ show at Union Stage. And to think that it all started, in her words, with beating Guitar Hero 2 on expert difficulty.
Williams may not have song vocals or a frenetic backing band, but when you can play guitar with the technical precision and relative ease that she can, those qualities seem like distant, unimportant priorities. Her performance was a treat to both behold and hear. Between songs, she told stories from her own musical journey, including her Guitar Hero 2 origin story, why she decided to play her guitar laid down on her lap (because it’s easier), and what her musical secret is (answer: play open tunings).
Her opening song was a still-untitled song she improvised while on stage at Newport this year. (Regarding Newport, according to Williams: “Highly recommended. Go play there if you can.”) On “Gitka,” she laid down a kalimba atop her face-up acoustic guitar and played it with one hand. On her other hand, she fingerpicked at the neck of the guitar. And all the while, she brought the percussion by beating down on the guitar body with her knuckles and tapping her feet on a raised wooden platform. Whether she was telling stories or playing her 12-string guitar, face-up six-string, and her harp guitar, every moment was a compelling one in the enraptured room.
Photos by Mauricio Castro
Covid Safety Rating
Venue Check for Proof of Vaccination? Yep
Masks required? Yep
Was the audience wearing masks? 90-100%
But at least the staff was wearing masks, right? Yep