For neo-folk fingerstyle and lap-tapping guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and film composer Yasmin Williams, 2021 was a big turning point.
It was the year the inventive guitarist reached more than 700,000 people via NPR's now-iconic Tiny Desk Concert series, released her breakthrough album Urban Driftwood, and performed a game-changing set at the Newport Folk Festival. Since then, her career has taken flight – a trajectory Williams credits to Guitar Hero.
“I played Guitar Hero II every day after school when I was 12, until I beat all the levels,” she tells The Guardian. Within weeks, she transformed into a Hendrix and Nirvana aficionado, and soon after, graduated to an Epiphone SG, with the game even inspiring some of her techniques.
“The game shaped my experimental approach to guitar,” she explains. “On really tricky levels, I’d put the controller in my lap and hammer the buttons super-fast.”
After getting over the shredding phase, Williams realized that playing an acoustic was her true calling, with a YouTube video of folk and blues musician Elizabeth Cotten performing in 1969 cementing her decision. “She drastically changed my trajectory,” she asserts.
“I took lessons for a few months, mainly just blues and rock stuff. Then my teacher showed me Blackbird by The Beatles. I just loved using my fingers and stopped using a pick after that,” she disclosed in a 2021 Guitar World interview.
“My teacher was like, ‘What happened?! I can’t really teach you any more fingerstyle because I’m not that kind of player!’ So I quit that. I didn’t like lessons anyway – I didn’t like being told what to do. I was a stubborn kid, I guess.”
After that moment, Williams played acoustic exclusively, which led to her penchant for lap-tapping. “I find writing songs a lot easier that way because on acoustic I’m not trying to emulate anyone or anything. I wasn’t playing covers or in anyone else’s style – I was just playing what I wanted to play.”
Williams' latest album, Acadia, was released on October 4 via Nonesuch Records. She is currently touring North America with Brittany Howard and Michael Kiwanuka.
