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She applies fine vocal work to such standards as Until The Real Thing Comes Along, Young At Heart and the title track from her recently released new album, Water To Drink, which she co-produced.
But as luck -- or bad luck -- would have it, Williams' Tuesday evening show at the Phoenix coincides with one of the busiest concert nights of the year. The Wallflowers are at The Guvernment, Mike Watt visits the Horseshoe and Ray Charles plays Roy Thomson Hall. (And, until he cancelled this week, Paul Weller also was scheduled to play at Massey Hall.)
"Oh, no! We're not going to have anybody there," said Williams down the line from a tour stop in Winnipeg this week.
"This is very much a drag. That is so crazy! They should have us playing on Saturday!"
Still, after playing a short opening set for Lou Reed this summer -- including a date at the Hummingbird -- Williams and her six-piece band (including husband-and-former Jayhawks member Mark Olson on bass) are now stretching out their show to last between two and two-and-a-half hours.
"Every night is different, I can tell you that much," says Williams, who is also joined on stage by a cornet and violin player, a pianist, pedal steel guitarist and drummer.
"We've got to keep ourselves entertained and there's just so many songs. I have a huge list at my feet and it has songs from every record so there's got to be something to suit my mood at any given moment."
So the audience can expect covers -- more standards in fact.
Williams recorded a whole album of standards, which is how Water To Drink came into being in the first place.
"I handed it into my manager. I just told him, 'I'm done with the record.' He goes, 'What?' I said, 'Yeh, I did this standards record.' And he said, 'Oh, Atlantic doesn't want standards. They want your originals! They signed you 'cause they wanted your originals!' "
Six months later, Williams had a new record consisting of nine originals and three standards, the latter with string arrangements courtesy of previous collaborator and legendary producer/arranger/composer Van Dyke Parks.
"He's a great joy to work with," Williams says. "He's a very quick-witted individual with a great sense of humour and excellent musical sensibilities. Given that he leans, of course, toward (Aaron) Copland-esque arrangements -- when you're talking strings -- but he also has leanings toward the island music. So he likes a lot of the different grooves in there. He's playful."
Williams says she has recorded 10 other standards, which she hopes will one day see the light of day. And she's not convinced that it was her label that nixed them in the first place.
"Well, I don't know that they didn't. It was my manager. An afterthought of the whole thing -- I realized that my manager, poor guy, he doesn't make any money. And the only money he makes is off my publishing and if I put a record of standards out that means he's not getting paid."
As for touring with Reed, Williams said she got the call to join his tour at the last minute. He was among those artists who performed on the 1993 all-star tribute album, Sweet Relief, which helped pay for Williams' medical bills after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
"I rarely see Lou. I do talk to him about health things, when he got diagnosed with his latest thing, which is diabetes. We gab about that and how we have to eat."