"Every album I've made has tended to fall outside of current musical trends," says Astrid Williamson. "The negative side of that is that you tend to be a little out of step with whatever's fashionable or popular at the time. But the positive side is that you end up with music that doesn't sound dated and isn't tied to a particular time." That's certainly the case with the belated yet timely American release of Astrid's debut solo album Boy for You, whose compelling blend of beguiling melodicism and soul-baring insight gives the music a timeless resonance. Those enduring values of musical craft and lyrical truth have been constants in the iconoclastic Scottish singer/songwriter's output, and have helped to endear her to a large and devoted following in Britain. She's also won a sizable and growing fan base in America, where she's toured several times—and where Boy for You was recorded, with noted producer Malcolm Burn (whose credits include work with Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris and Patti Smith). On such vividly drawn numbers as "World At Your Feet," "Everyone's Waiting," "Hozanna" and "I Am the Boy for You," Williamson's lyrical, musical and vocal gifts combine to produce musically vibrant, emotionally precise explorations of the darker margins of love, sex, power and faith. Her songs' tough-minded intimacy is matched by the bittersweet expressiveness of her voice, and by her knack for inventive, artfully layered arrangements. No wonder the legendary British critic Julie Burchill was moved to write of Williamson, "It was like Johnny Cash and Brigitte Bardot had had a baby and stuck a guitar in its mitt." Williamson's ability to combine gentle soundscapes with rugged insight may be a reflection of her early upbringing in the rural environs of Scotland's Shetland Islands, as well as her grass-roots rise as a hard- working touring act. Born to musically inclined parents, Williamson became musically active during childhood, becoming proficient on piano, guitar, flute and fiddle. Her parents' divorce when she was nine years old helped instill the fiercely independent streak that would serve Williamson well in her subsequent musical career. After both of her parents remarried and relocated to the north of England, she spent the next several years moving around frequently, developing an ability to feel at home anywhere—a trait that would come in handy when she adopted the lifestyle of a traveling troubadour. "I was always sure I would make a career of music," Williamson recalls. "It was just a given. Everyone assumed I'd be a musician, or perhaps everybody assumed I'd do what I wanted, regardless of what they suggested." After earning a music degree from the prestigious Royal Scottish Academy in Glasgow, Williamson began her recording career as a member of the critically acclaimed trio Goya Dress. That group released one album, the John Cale-produced Rooms, on the Nude label, before disbanding. Reinventing herself as a solo artist, Williamson rebuilt her career from the ground up, setting up her own label, Incarnation, and licensing her albums to One Little Indian. In addition to winning widespread acclaim for Boy for You and her subsequent releases Astrid and Day of the Lone Wolf, Williamson has established a reputation as a magnetic live performer with a knack for cutting to a song's emotional center. Her touring efforts have won her an enthusiastic audience in the U.K., where she's shared stages with acts as diverse as Aimee Mann, Neil Finn, Ron Sexsmith, Maria McKee, the Wedding Present, Lloyd Cole, Roddy Frame, Bic Runga, Darren Hayes and Michael Bolton, as well as performing at such prestigious U.K. festivals as Glastonbury, Wireless, Connect, Solfest and the Summer Sundae Weekender. "My fans are intense and loyal and intelligent," Williamson observes, adding. "I was in the audience at a Josh Rouse concert in Brighton, and a chap came up to me and said my music had literally saved his life. A comment like that can deflect a few years' worth of slings and arrows." Williamson's resume also includes studio collaborations with a variety of other acts. She's lent her vocal and/or instrumental skills to releases by Electronic, the Hope Blister, Tara MacLean, Arthur Baker, the Bilderberg Groop and Oskar; the latter combo records for Williamson's Incarnation label. Williamson maintains a special fondness for Boy for You, both for its musical content and for the experience of recording it in the unconventional atmosphere of Malcolm Burn's studio in pre-Katrina New Orleans, with a studio band comprised of guitarist Bill Dillon, trumpet player Gerard Presencer and Williamson's former Goya Dress bandmates Terry de Castro (currently a member of the Wedding Present) and Simon Pearson. The sessions tapped into the city's musical and mystical heritage. "The whole experience was intoxicating," Williamson recalls. "My expectations of New Orleans at the time were very Anne Rice, so it was appropriate that we began recording on Halloween, with incense burning and fairy lights all over the place. We worked a lot at night, starting in the afternoon and finishing in the small hours. On 'Someone,' there's actually a thunderstorm taking place, and you can hear Malcolm's dog barking. The recording was a real learning experience; Malcolm pushed a lot, but I think we got some amazing results." Now based in the English seaside city of Brighton, Williamson views music as a life's work. "My albums have an eclectic mixture of song styles, but what holds them all together is a desire for lyrical honesty and a genuine love of songwriting. If a song doesn't make me howl when I'm writing it, I'm not interested; sadly, I approach relationships in a similar way. "It's hard for me to put into words what music means to me and how it has affected me," she asserts. "Mostly I feel that music has saved me. I've come to realize that a career, like life, has many twists and turns. I've had high points, like playing a show at the Royal Albert Hall last year, with my dad in the audience. And I've had low points, like losing my lucky hair brush in Wales. It's how you handle success and failure that shapes you. "Changing is as much about discovering who you actually are and allowing yourself to be that person, rather than the person you might have tried to be," Williamson concludes. "The journey is about coming home to yourself."

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