Amanda Jo Williams was born a little white girl in Georgia. She had a lot of outdoor fun, especially with her brother. She quit college very abruptly and moved to New York at 19 after attending a modeling convention in Columbus, Georgia. It was a rip-off but Amanda met an agent. He said, “Come to New York.” After a year on the runway, some lovers and things, Amanda and friends took a bus to Kingston and hitchhiked with a woman to Woodstock. They slept in the woods the first night and Amanda was scared. In town the next day they met a crazy Woodstock shaman. He took her to artist Paul McMahon’s house, the hippie hangout. Paul would teach her to play guitar when she was pregnant with his twins, Ginger & Hominy. Williams was about to enter nursing school when she came to Los Angeles in August 2008 to play Manimal Vinyl’s Spaceland residency. In December 2008 she moved there to pursue music full force. She writes freak folk songs, a little bit of country rap, and explores the wonders of video art. She lives on a Topanga hillside, a bit like a gypsy.

Amanda Jo Williams
http://www.myspace.com/amandajowilliamsmusic
“Pure magic. Simple, mysterious, and other-worldly. Like a Sexton fairy-tale.”—Lach (Anti-folk founder)
“This is unequivocally the best country album I’ve heard in years. I get just as much pleasure out of it as I get from Emmy Lou Harris or Gram Parsons or (gasp) Johnny Cash.”—Coke Machine Glow

He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister
http://www.myspace.com/hesmybrothershesmysister
mp3: “Tales That I Tell”
“They make debauchery and estrangement so glamorous. The songs are as catchy as a radio pop jam, but throw off the trappings of plastic pop and wrap you in fur, folk, and the last drops of moonlight.”—L.A. Record

Henry Wolfe
http://www.myspace.com/henrywolfemusic
“His songs caught me by surprise. Sweet, poetic and endearing…I can’t wait to hear more.”—Spicy Times With Nora & Jinners

Paul McMahon
He’s a songwriter, an inventor, and a Woodstock historical marker. His artwork from the ‘70s has shown in the Metropolitan Museum Of Art. He’s visiting L.A. to speak at CalArts & Otis.
http://www.paulmcmahon.tv/
mp3: “You’re My Guts”
“With Paul McMahon riding along with me on the road of life, I have help with the flat tires” —Chief Shoveler of the Cowpies

Matthew O’Neill
http://www.myspace.com/matthewoneill
“Uniquely classic songs, awesome shamanic hillbilly jams.”—Taos Messenger

L.A. RECORD
White Noise
Metl Reserva Especial Tequila

vocals, guitar- Amanda Jo Williams
lead guitar- Matthew O’Neill
bass- Mike Dunn
drums, percussion, piano- Andy Martin
vocals- Avalon Peacock
fiddle- Larry Packer
recorded in 2006 at Crack Signal Recording
engineered by Andrew Martin

Yes I Will, Mr Man was recorded in Woodstock, NY, on 18 secluded acres of beautiful Catskill forest, in two days. A lot of the songs were inspired by love, even the fiery political ones are driven by being in love.—Going all the way out to New Mexico because he said, “If you’re ever in New Mexico, look me up.” Going all the way there to Truth and Consequences and back in a rusty pick-up truck with a few screws loose. You can hear it in the rattling, bumpy drums and creaking guitar chugging along this wild ride. The energy. It’s rabid country music played by skilled, risk-taking musicians. Williams sings loudly. She slurs and cracks with the charred inflection of a cartoon commander from the South wearing fatigues and war paint to the grocery store, fighting for freedom in the mundane everyday.

The song “Yes I Will, Mr. Man” is channelled. Williams couldn’t tell you what it’s about. Except for the bridge. She had a beautiful man in mind when she wrote the bridge, but that’s not really important. “Ohio” was written in Brooklyn thinking about love, Amanda’s ever-present muse. She likes Vietnam. Her daddy was in Vietnam. She likes camouflage and hiding in the woods. “All The Mountains” is a love song about a cold, confident Gemini’s swagger, written during a modeling job in London. In “Nobody Can Love You Like I Do,” Amanda imagined a woman trying to get her power back after a relationship. She’s getting strong. She’s getting there. Williams offers her politics on “Just Because The Rains Don’t Fall In Texas” and “Hey Hey Hey Hey,” as she proclaims, “I am living, I am living like a wild woman!” She’s more the spiritual type, but Yes I Will, Mr Man captures Williams getting radical, scratching her back against American conventionalism, ready to take on the world with an accent thick as bacon.

On August 14, The Cowboy Show comes to town, bringing together three Los Angeles bands with spurs aimed at the bucking bronco, the dusty corral, and the hillbilly heartbreaker deep within.

THE COWBOY SHOW

Amanda Jo Williams‘ voice rises a few helium-affected keys above June Carter’s, as she straps a little guitar to the broken fences of her country heart. She’ll be accompanied by a tap-dancing percussionist and special guests.

Amanda Jo Williams – “Beat Eats Me”
“Beat Eats Me”

Crooked Cowboy & Freshwater Friends performs a howling array of desert soul that’ll give rattlesnakes a better use for shaking their spiny tailfeathers.

Crooked Cowboy – “Sally”
“Sally”

Horse Thieves rides in, sharp as a gang of banditos, with a late-night saloon sound that crackles like a fire against the yelping of gray coyotes.

Horse Thieves – “Pillar of Fire”
“Pillar Of Fire”

Venture into a re-imagined New West. El diablo awaits.