Devon Williams

I was standing in front of the Palace Theater downtown a few weeks ago when Devon Williams rode up on his bike with a new mohawk, upon which he remarked. “Allen and I were having a conversation about reality”— Allen is Allen Bleyle, Devon’s closest friend and musical collaborator— “and we decided reality is mohawks,” Devon explained. Nor were they fauxhawks or posehawks of the kind that can be combed, gelled or otherwise persuaded into looking-for-a-job hairstyles; no, these were authentic Mohicans. Onstage, as in his everyday life, Devon is likely to throw himself face-first into the unknown, whether the unknown takes the form of a mohawk or a tea colonic administered by a Russian woman of dubious medical credentials, and his willingness to take risks is my favorite thing about being in a Devon Williams audience, or playing Devon’s songs on the occasions when I am his sideman. You wouldn’t know it from listening to the gorgeously written, arranged and performed songs on this disc, but D.T. Williams loves to throw the map out the window, crank up the thermostat and say “FUCK IT.” Devon lives in the terrifying, endless moment of the eternal present, burning at the white heat of unmediated contact with Robert Duncan’s “inspirational chaos,” and is even capable of extemporaneous shredding when goaded in just the right way. I mention all this because it is my duty to dispel certain lazy comparisons that come up again and again in Devon’s press. Because he was the leader of the band Osker between the ages of 3 and 6, Devon’s music is described as “punk,” but because his previous band Fingers Cut Megamachine featured acoustic instruments, harmonies and string accompaniments, it is also “Americana.” These songs don’t rely on the poses so many of today’s singer-songwriters hide behind— I mean they don’t use any of the familiar devices that turn the singer’s feyness, pain or shyness into a hook. These songs are made up of real music. They are simple, bold, clear and beautiful, and they are made for people to listen to, and that’s all they have to be to challenge you and the radio in the second half of this strange decade.