It's Saturday night and you've got that special lady at your side. The big question - OK, the other big question - is what music will you play that will set the mood without being so obvious as to set the mood. Perhaps something like Brooks Williams' album "Baby O!"?
And well you might as, with more than a dozen albums to his credit, Brooks Williams knows how to keep your attention without ever being so impolite as to ask for it. This album, therefore, exudes a warmth that leaves you feeling kind of cosy. The album's opener "Frank Delandry" is a fine example of the kind of Mark Knopfler style slickness that he brings to his music. It is a stylistic thing about his own songs though as - interestingly - he shows rather more fire and not inconsiderable interpretational skills on other people's songs like Son House's "Grinnin' In Your Face" and an eloquent and moving instrumental version of "Amazing Grace"
Brooks Williams doesn't really lock himself into any one genre. He's a little bit bluesy, a little bit Americana and just a little bit country too - he ventures into Bob Cheevers territory in "Last Chance Love", for example - but he manages that trick of making it all look easy. Nothing sound forced or processed and that's the sign of a real musician. Nicely recorded too, this is the kind of album that deserves a wider audience than those of us with a middle age spread.