Christopher Williams elevates soul searching to an art form. Dancing the fine line between songwriting and poetry, Williams explores the universal truths at the core of our collective experience through the telling of deceptively simple stories. Williams brings fresh perspective to often explored themes withouth overstating the obvious. His voice is at once soothing and impassioned while he weaves his stories over the rich tones of his guitar playing. -Westchester Weekly What sets Williams apart from other singer songwriters is that while he can pick and strum a guitar just fine, he's an accomplished percussionist, known for both backing other performers and at times, setting the guitar aside and accompanying himself on the djembe hand drum. Williams is touring with "side streets • live," his fourth release. Recorded live at storied Club Passim in Cambridge, Mass, "side streets" captures Williams' music and warmth and passion with which he delivers that music. - San Antonio Express With his sweet, soaring vocals, lush guitar work, and thumping djembe hand-drum, Williams has been gradually making a name for himself on the folk scene, playing with the likes of Bruce Hornsby, Ellis Paul, Tom Rush, and Patty Larkin. A rigorous touring schedule (120-plus shows annually) keeps Williams on the road much of the year, but the musician returns home to Boston whenever he can, even managing to record a live album, side streets - live, at Club Passim earlier this year. - the Boston Phoenix His latest CD, side streets • live, his fourth since taking his craft full-time in the 1993, draws from live performances from May 2000 through May 2001 at Passim's, the relocated, legendary folk venue in his native Boston. The disc is an impressive recording-excrutiatingly clean, detailed and sympathetic to Williams' nuanced and expressive vocals, It has a kind of warmth and intimacy that live recordings sometimes forgo in favor of audience fueled crackle. "Passim's is such a special place for me. It's in the basement of this building; it basically holds 120 people, not a bad seat in the house. I'm really into making contact with my audience, making eye contact, and this place is just perfect for that. And the fact that it's a local crowd, people who know me, just makes it that much better. In some ways, it really captures what I do, maybe even better than the last studio CD I did." Williams' songs explore themes of redemption and uncertainty, faith and regret, being lost and being found. He seems at home with straight verse/chorus arrangements as with more loosely bound arrangements, and you get the sense that he challenges his listener ever so gently while offering familiar images and hard-won wisdom. - Boulder Weekly