Josh Williams is a flatpicking guitarist and singer from Benton, Kentucky. He won IBMA Guitar Player of the Year three years in a row, in 2008, 2009, and 2010. He played guitar for Rhonda Vincent and the Rage in two stretches, from 2004 to 2007 and from 2012 to 2021, and led his own Josh Williams Band, which won IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year in 2010. He also played mandolin in the Tony Rice Unit.
Why Williams matters
Williams is the model of a modern bluegrass band guitarist. He plays hard, clean breaks in the J.D. Crowe and the New South tradition, and he sings lead well enough to front a band. He came up on banjo, mandolin, and fiddle before he settled on guitar, so his breaks think like a whole band. A jammer who wants to hear a working bluegrass guitar chair from the 2000s and 2010s can start with him.
Life and career
Williams grew up in Benton, Kentucky. His grandmother lived next door and taught him ukulele at age five. He moved to piano, then guitar around age eight, then banjo after he saw one on television. He took banjo lessons from Alison Brown and from Scottie Henson. He formed his first band at ten and recorded his first album at 11. In 1993 he appeared on the IBMA awards show with the Bluegrass Youth All-Stars, and he fronted Josh Williams and High Gear through high school.
He graduated from Marshall County High School in 1999 and went to work the next Monday in Branson, Missouri, playing five shows a day. He joined the Special Consensus that year, playing mandolin and fiddle under Greg Cahill at a pace of 250 to 300 dates a year. Pinecastle released his albums Now That You’re Gone (2001) and Lonesome Highway (2004).
Williams joined Rhonda Vincent and the Rage on guitar in December 2003 and stayed until September 2007. He appeared on the 2005 live album and DVD Ragin’ Live. He won his first IBMA Guitar Player of the Year award in 2008 and repeated in 2009 and 2010. In 2008 he formed the Josh Williams Band with Jason McKendree. The band won IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year in 2010, the same year Pinecastle released Down Home.
In 2011 a bird landed on his guitar while he sang Mordecai at Doyle Lawson’s festival. The video passed a million views within months and brought new listeners to bluegrass. In December 2012 Williams rejoined the Rage. With that band he won a Grammy for All the Rage: In Concert Volume One, which tied for Best Bluegrass Album at the 2018 ceremony. Rounder released his solo album Modern Day Man in 2016. He stepped back from touring in April 2021.
Playing style
Williams plays in the driving style of Tony Rice and the New South records. His breaks lock to the beat, and his rhythm playing has the punch a band needs behind a strong lead singer. He is a multi-instrumentalist, and years on mandolin and banjo show in his solos. He phrases like a mandolin player on fast tunes and like a singer on slow ones.
His voice is part of the package. He sang lead and harmony in the Rage and fronted his own band. When a bird landed on his guitar mid-song, he kept singing and did not miss a beat.
Influences and legacy
Williams found J.D. Crowe and the New South around age nine or ten, and he names Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice, and Ricky Skaggs from that band as his first models. He also lists Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, Doc Watson, and Keith Whitley. Today he listens to the Bluegrass Album Band, Dan Tyminski, the Lonesome River Band, and the Gibson Brothers.
He toured with Tony Rice as a mandolin player and a mentee for three to four years. He has played beside Rhonda Vincent, Hunter Berry, and Aaron McDaris in the Rage, and he has shared stages with Chris Eldridge and Andy Falco. SPBGMA named him Guitar Performer of the Year each year from 2005 to 2010 and kept doing so for years after.
Signature tunes and songs
Mordecai Highway 40 Blues Cherokee Shuffle Modern Day Man.
Essential recordings
Now That You’re Gone (Pinecastle, 2001) Lonesome Highway (Pinecastle, 2004) Down Home (Pinecastle, 2010) Modern Day Man (Rounder, 2016) All the Rage: In Concert Volume One, Rhonda Vincent and the Rage (Upper Management Music, 2016)
Awards and honors
SPBGMA Guitar Performer of the Year (2005 to 2010) IBMA Guitar Player of the Year (2008) IBMA Guitar Player of the Year (2009) IBMA Guitar Player of the Year (2010) IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year, The Josh Williams Band (2010) Grammy Award, Best Bluegrass Album, with Rhonda Vincent and the Rage for All the Rage: In Concert Volume One (2018)
Watch and listen
Williams sings Mordecai at Doyle Lawson’s festival in 2011. A bird lands on his guitar, and he keeps going.
Williams, Andy Falco, and Chris Eldridge trade breaks on Cherokee Shuffle. Compare the three approaches to the same tune.
What to learn from Williams
Learn Cherokee Shuffle from the three-guitar video and pick out Williams’s break. It stays close to the melody and lands on the beat, which is what a band needs. The technique to steal is his rhythm behind a singer. Put on a Rhonda Vincent record from his years in the Rage and play along with only the rhythm part. Keep the bass runs short and the strums even. He held that chair through three Guitar Player of the Year awards and a Grammy, and rhythm is most of what he did there.
Sources
Josh Williams, IBMA award recipients Josh Williams Band, IBMA award recipients Williams, Josh, BluegrassBios.com Josh Williams, Pinecastle Records Josh Williams joins Rhonda and the Rage, Bluegrass Today Josh Williams video goes viral, Bluegrass Today Williams reflects on musical career in bluegrass, Tribune-Courier An interview with Josh Williams, Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association All the Rage (Rhonda Vincent album), Wikipedia
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. Williams learned from Tony Rice and toured in his band. Kenny Smith held the same kind of band guitar chair a decade earlier. Chris Eldridge and Cody Kilby are his peers in the same generation.