Hayward Williams’ music stops time. He lays his guitar across his lap; his defining tenor rises from nowhere, and whether it’s the wood-paneled bars of the Midwest, or small clubs across Europe, the result is always the same. The room halts. Noises recede. Clocks slow. People forget where they were; they become aware of where they are. Everything aligns. For the last decade, Williams has been quietly and urgently building a following and a career the old-fashioned way, song-by-song, album-by-album. First there was Uphill/Downhill. Then, Another Sailor's Dream, followed by the breakthrough Cotton Bell. Mapping the trajectory from one to the next, the thing that remains is Williams’ graceful, resigned tone and timeless songwriting, and how he uses both to disguise the profound in the simple. His next album is coming very soon.