HAYWARD WILLIAMS: Uphill/Downhill

Hayward Williams

Uphill/Downhill

© 2005 Hayward williams (634479124662)

CD IN STOCK. ORDER NOW. Will ship immediately.

(About MP3 downloads at CD Baby)

"Hayward Williams has matched his happy-go-lucky claustrophobia and dead-on tunefulness with a shrewd and complex production that makes every song on Uphill/ Downhill fascinate..." -Jeffrey Foucault

tracks

1 All at Once
2 Paper Hat
3 Simply Put
4 Before it Begins
5 Plaster of Paris
6 Somebody
7 Wear me out
8 My Swift Love
9 Problems with Hemingway
10 Cleverly Disturbed
11 Good Morning
12 12

notes

2.10.07
My brand new album 'Another Sailor's Dream' is also available now at CD Baby: http://cdbaby.com/cd/williamshayward

You can find it in stores across the country on March 6, 2007.

I'll be touring a lot this year, hope to see you at a show.

All the latest tour info is here: http://myspace.com/haywardwilliams

Hayward


"Who knows how he did it, but he has already written a few songs that any self-respecting songwriter would give an arm to have done. Watch him like a hawk. Track his movements. This could get hairy." -Peter Mulvey

"Hayward Williams' earnestly jaunty folk-rock might seem anachronistic in the prevailing musical atmosphere of self-conscious irony, but his combination of melody, restraint, and unabashed enthusiasm saves the day. Williams also boasts a voice that sounds several decades older than he actually is, lending his songs of love and loss a gravity they might not otherwise possess."
-The Onion

Hayward Williams grew up with a guitar in his hands, performing from an early age in cafés, bars, and eventually rock clubs throughout his home state of Wisconsin and around the Midwest. A high school 'Battle of the Bands' champion, the textbook lonely college kid making dinner dates with his guitar, Williams took the well-worn suburban route to musical accomplishment: he hit the ground running with a '64 Gibson that his mother bought at a garage sale, listened hard to everything from the Beatles to Buckley, and somewhere along the way began to write the tunes that would become his own voice.
In 2001 Williams quit school to join the award-winning Milwaukee based band Exit, named Wisconsin Band of the Year in 2004, by the Wisconsin Area Music Industry. Lending bass guitar and vocals to the bands' hook-driven pop catalogue, Williams traveled the Midwest circuit and around the country with Exit, cutting his teeth as a performer and playing everywhere from the Summerfest stage in Wisconsin, to CBGBs in New York City. The regional popularity of Exit gave Hayward entrée into larger clubs even as he was honing the catalogue of songs that would propel him toward more intimate settings.
In 2002 Williams independently released Manoverboard, a solo project recorded under a pseudonym (Hayward is sneaky), which allowed him the opportunity to play solo engagements throughout the region and served as the foundation for Uphill /Downhill, Hayward Williams's 2005 debut. A Wilco-esque collision of the radio and folk idioms that combines smart hooks with deeply textured studio atmospherics, Uphill/Downhill is an impressive collection of 12 original songs that moves elegantly from heartbreak to self-examination to wonder without the self-seriousness that might ordinarily drag such wanderings down.
Hayward's live shows have been described as having "...everything you could hope for... message, melody, and hooks" (Vital Source), and feature his facile guitar and thoughtful, distinctive tenor (imagine the honeyed side of Ryan Adams, Jay Farrar's earthy grit, the playfulness of Sam Cooke). Built on a foundation of folk, blues, and soul Hayward's songs in performance display the raw intensity common to these forms, tempered by his own easy self-possession and wry charm.
In little clubs and smoky bars around the Midwest, armed with his excellent debut record Uphill/Downhill, and his aw-shucks charisma, Hayward Williams is quietly building both a following and a career the old-fashioned way, one night at a time.

reviews

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  • I haven't really heard the album but...
    author: J. Pinc

    I have never really heard Hayward's album but I happened upon this "write your own review" thing and decided that I wanted to "write my own review." Hayward's album is a conscious blend of techno/trance with an ironic twist which, if I may surmise, comes from his brief, but fictional, jaunt in South Africa. The whole makes for a delicate and full bodied music of the type one might call Cabernet on Ice. Or you could call it Alt-Country if you have no imagination. You bastard. The funny thing about the album, and this "write your own review" option, is that it seems to have no limit and could possibly go on indefinitely. Thales, of the Seven Sages, once said that of all things God is oldest for he is ungenerated, but Hayward's album is generated and therefore is not that old. Actually it is sort of new on a geological scale, and for this reason alone it deserves 4 stars, or at least the little dipper. Buy it now or burn it illegally for free. The decision, and your honor, are at stake. Stake not thine honor on your burning for the fire will consumest thou as well. Dominum Platinum Cerebis Terra da Vinci.

  • very warm and enjoyable
    author: gustave koehn

    this is one of those cd's you just put in and let it go. it's one of those early morning with a cup of coffee cd's. it's one of those drive to get things off your mind cd's. what can i say...i really enjoy it.

  • This is it!
    author: Martin

    So many singer-songwriters around. Some with one or 2 catchy song and the rest fills in. Not this outstanding record. Everytime you think you heard the best song of the cd, there is another one to suprise you! I don't like to compare this artist with anybody. This should be a planetar hit. Songs are strong, the voice is right, the production is modern, but is sober enough to let the tune go straight to your heart!

  • Awesome
    author: Patricia

    Amazing...I was just settling in for my drive to work..popped the cd in...and got lost in his voice..

  • amazing
    author: jared

    in one word fantastic! clap clap yes worthy! is it just a coinsodince that the album cover is a square with a cricle in the middle? wheres the line going down the middle. nice work goo

  • Fantastic piece of sonic perfection
    author: Mike Kuntz

    This CD is sure to impress. All at once it surrounds you, and you become his music. While keeping very basic but very complex somehow at the same time, Uphill/Downhill gives you something new to listen to each time you pop it in. Nice work, Goo.

  • wonderful.
    author: Hannah

    hayward williams makes wonderful music. When you hear it it just takes you away. His soulful and soft approach makes him even more likeable. He is a slight mixture between john mayer, ryan adams and a little james taylor. Buy the cd right away it is truly fabulous.

  • wonderful
    author: Hannah

    hayward williams is perfect.

  • and you wish you understood
    author: Jimmy Crackcorn

    Listen to it once, then realize why you know absolutly nothing about music. Wisconsin radio won't play it, so you should listen to it. "Whats all that racket?" Fantastic array of melodies mixed with nothing more then a main dish of kick ass sh1t, why, Cause I plan on F()cking.

  • Fabulous Solo Artist
    author: Eric "The Stallion" C.

    As I listened to the Cd I thought about Jeff Buckley with a different folk style. The music is addicting. You will be missing out if you don't pick up this Cd.

  • HEY!
    author: Sarah

    Hey! My mom (nancy) put ur CD on when we were going to buy shoes for amanda and i think its great! youve acomplished so much and id love to see you play sometime. bye! - Sarah Kendzior

  • Your ears will thank you
    author: Joe D.

    This album blends great vocals with irrestible melodies and brilliant guitar playing. Uphill/Downhill is just the beginning of a bright music career for a young Hayward Williams. Hayward's style is addicting and once you hear his first song, your ears will want to hear nothing else.

  • Buy this album and your life will be complete.
    author: Sarah W.

    The sounds on this album lie somewhere in between the grittiness of down-home mountain music humming its way out of a Depression-era Victrola and the haunting etherealness of Radiohead's earliest and most well-crafted guitar noise and electronic loops. Impossible combination you say? No. Meet Hayward Williams--the best thing to hit your earholes since the Beatles went psychedelic but could still write a mean hook.

  • Uphill/Downhill bleeds undecorated soulful authenticity.
    author: Ryan John Erke

    If you've got an ear you already know...this album places him in the company of some of the giants. Uphill/Downhill bleeds undecorated soulful authenticity. There are echoes of the old school greats here, like Drake and Dylan mixed with shades of best of the new wave like Sufjan and Ryan Adams. Get you hands on it now because its the real thing.

  • You Don't Know What You're Missing
    author: Steve S

    Take it from a guy who's known Hayward since he was a zygote and has no qualms about publicly embarrassing him: This CD is amazing. Every track rings with an honesty and talent nobody should have this early in their career. The CD's touching, heartfelt, and most importantly, memorable. You have to hear it to believe it. Watch this guy close, he's incredible now and he's only getting started.

  • Fans of Grant Lee Phillips and Nick Drake will LOVE this!
    author: Carsten

    The melodies on this record will stick in your mind like peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth...and just as tasty too. Haunting soulful vocals with excellent harmonies and tasteful accompanyment and fluid arrangements. I am often reminded, when listening to this record, of the aural landscapes musically painted by Nick Drake. Hayward's voice has that same type of deapth and worldliness. The HIT here is Wear Me Out but many stand out tracks: Paper Hat could be Hayward's Pink Moon. This is beautiful art you can stick in your ears.

  • Good sound, Great tunes what can I say?... Great
    author: Rick S.

    This is a great album! Good tunes, Great melodies. Why isnt this guy signed yet? Listen to him now before he gets overplayed and overdone so you can say - I was listening to Hayward Williams years ago!

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