Unusual guitarist gains fame

Jason "Lefty" Williams is not your run-of-the-mill blues-rock guitarist. He was raised in Atlanta and took interest in the guitar at a young age. "[I started playing because] my dad played," Williams said. "I really don't remember starting , so it's kind of hard to remember why I wanted to start. When I hit middle school, it kind of became a creative outlet for me and a way to get my frustration with being a teenager and anger and that kind of stuff out. The more I played the more I loved it."

Choosing a different route to stardom than most young musicians, he attended Atlanta Institute of Music after high school and graduated with honors. He stayed on as an instructor there until he was ready to make his music career his full-time job. After playing with several local groups, he decided to form his own band. And oh yeah, he's only got one hand.

Williams was born without his right hand. To overcome his disability, when he was only 6 he created a pick with a harness to wear on his arm. Now Big Plans, the debut album of the Jason "Lefty" Williams Band, is being released on Second Heaven Records.

"The record is a culmination of the songs I've written over the past 6 or 7 years," Williams said. "I've been in various different bands and been inspired by various different things." Playing with Williams on the album are band mates Ray Dombrowski on bass, Bellian Marshall on drums and Mike Shears on percussion. Big Plans also features Tom Knight, who did drum work for TLC, and Adam Nitty, who is currently touring with Steven Curtis Chapman.

Despite having half the fingers of most guitarists, Williams puts many of them to shame, as is immediately apparent on the all-acoustic first track, "Canyons/A Room with a View". But in order to be considered a genuine musical talent rather than a novelty act, Williams should be able to do more than strum a few chords. With Big Plans he was able to do just this.

On the record, Williams makes it seem as though he's been doing this forever. He sounds right at home next to rock and roll legends, like Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn. "I did a show with Tim Reynolds a few months back at Smith's Olde Bar and he said that I had a very classic sound.... I thought that was pretty nice of him to say," Williams said.

With each track, he showcases another sound and another side of his musical personality. Shine Begins to Fade is a hard-hitting blues rock number where Williams shows off his guitar virtuosity in a style very reminiscent of Vaughn. He is also a very talented lyricist. On the funky country tune "Mississippi Orgy", Williams sings, "We'll take off all our shoes and have a Mississippi orgy." Williams said that this is reference to a personal experiene. Sort of.

"The story behind that song is my wife and I were hanging out at the house one night with one of her friends that she had grown up in Vermont with.... One of [the friend's] professors in college told her about this law. In Mississippi, an orgy is legally defined as any time that four or more people are in a room with their shoes off. I thought it was ridiculous, so I made up a story about going to Mississippi and getting arrested," Williams said.

"Room with a View Reprise" is one of the greatest instrumental songs I've ever heard, with intricate picking and a slower groove that you can't help but hum along to. On the title track, a song that echoes Georgian artist Shawn Mullins, Williams proves he can belt out a soulful ballad like the best of them. "The song is my view on ... how things have been going with the music industry and how I've been feeling about that."

As a whole, Big Plans is a remarkable debut album. If you love music the way it used to be played, simple and with emotion, you will love this album. It is even exceeding Williams' expectations. "I think there are already five or six hundred sold out of an initial thousand, and I've only had it a couple of months. [At the release party] we almost sold out Smith's [Olde Bar]. We were about 50 people short of putting the room to capacity. " Williams said.

Not one to sit on his hand, Williams is excited about the future. "I will probably do a follow-up album next year... I'm in the middle of writing a bunch of material right now, too. I'm kind of going through a little writing spurt. I've pumped out about seven new songs in the past three weeks that I really like a lot and the band seems to like a lot. But I don't want to rush into it too quickly. I want to give this album time to breathe and let it do what it needs to do."