Willie Williams on Shockoe Sessions Live!

Concerts performed at In Your Ear Studios. If you can't make it in person, you can watch live or later HERE!

Originally hailing from South Carolina, singer/songwriter/guitarist Willie Williams has a truly inspiring story. After all, how many folks would voluntarily abandon a successful insurance career to pursue the arts? “Leaving the corporate world in my early 40s to play music full time was probably the craziest thing I could’ve done,” chuckles Williams from his home in Richmond, VA. Growing up on a steady diet of country, blues, R&B and rock music, Williams was on the rise as a promising young artist in the late 90s. But he gave it all up to start a family and a “straight” career, a decision he says he does not regret. “My family is the light of my life, and the business skills I learned in the insurance world were invaluable.” While that was true, the monotonous corporate life is no place for creative souls, and by 2021 Williams had had enough. “I knew I had to get out or I was gonna wind up institutionalized,” he says in a warm Southern baritone, only half joking. “I think it was all supposed to happen this way.”

Maybe so, but the “it” Williams is talking about has not come easy. Playing nearly a thousand gigs in the last few years was the exact crash course Williams needed. “I had a lot of down time during the pandemic and it gave me the opportunity to make a plan. I knew I was late to the dance and I had a lot of catching up to do.” Leveraging some old Nashville friendships, Willie soon landed a high profile gig with legendary Texas guitar slinger, Lee Roy Parnell, and later, Dickey Betts’ side project, Great Southern. But it was on hundreds of regional solo gigs where Williams truly honed his craft. “Playing solo is the ultimate proving ground,” he says. “You either sink or swim, and to be successful doing it takes lots of repetition. It’s the most intimate connection an artist can have with their audience.”

Doors 7pm

Show 7:30pm SHARP!

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