Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #119 (August/September 2005).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Robin and Linda Williams

Robin & Linda Williams

Southern Harmony

by Tom Nelligan

The sound of two voices in harmony is almost as old and as reassuring as the Virginia hills, and two of the strongest voices that have echoed through those hills for more than three decades belong to Robin and Linda Williams. Their music is a classic mix of Southern roots: traditional country, old-time, bluegrass, and folk, with touches of gospel and blues, blended and filtered through their own years of listening and their considerable ability as performers and songwriters.

Through thousands of concert sets across North America and Europe, 17 albums, and countless broadcast appearances on programs ranging from the "Grand Ole Opry" to "Austin City Limits" and "A Prairie Home Companion," the Williamses have arguably done as much as any act to create and foster the musical genre that has come to be known as Americana. With strong instrumental skills complementing their singing (both play guitar, and Linda is also a master of clawhammer banjo), compelling energy and warmth, a great sense of humor, and a clear respect for the traditions that they've had a major role in updating, the Williamses have earned the respect of both their loyal fans and a chorus of fellow musicians. Last March, they talked about their music and their long career together in a phone conversation from their home in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.

Robin and Linda Williams were both born in 1947 -- he in Charlotte, North Carolina, and she in Anniston, Alabama. The homespun music of the South was an early influence for both of them, but it was far from the only one. "It all starts with the music that you are familiar with as you're growing up," Robin explained, "and as a young person I grew up with the music of the church." His father was a Pentecostal minister, and the strong-voiced hymns that he heard on Sundays still echo in some of his music today. "But I did not grow up in the vacuum that a lot of people a generation before me grew up in, where the only time they heard music was on a battery-powered radio or in their home when someone played. I grew up listening to the music that was on the radio, and a lot of it came from WYMB in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I guess you'd call it inauthentic folk music, the pop folk music of the 50s and 60s. Say what you want about it, but it was what led me to where I wanted to be, because it was the kind of music where, when I was in high school, I figured out a few chords and knew I could play that."

[cover #119]