Chatting with Tiffany Williams
Photo by Danielle Shields
Hey Tiffany, how the heck are you today?
Finer than frog hair & I hope you are too!
Best response I’ve ever had to that question! So, easy question first, where are you right now, and what are you up to today?
I just got back from playing Rhythm & Roots in Bristol, TN/VA over the weekend, which was eight hours round trip, so today is my "decompress & catch up" day. I’m trying to balance my full-time gig with my music gigs, so I try to be intentional about resting.
Introduce yourself to our campers.
Hello! I’m a folk singer-songwriter originally from Appalachian Kentucky, now living in Nashville. I never set out to be doing all this (I was going to be a professor of linguistics), but here I am. I care a lot about words & I’m just okay at guitar.
It’d be great to hear more about your background, what can you tell me about your hometown?
I’m from a hamlet (according to Wikipedia) called McRoberts. It’s a coal camp town that was built in 1912. My dad worked underground in the coal mines for 36 years. The creek across from my house is called Wrights Creek, named after the Wrights, who were some of the earliest settlers of McRoberts. They’re my people; my seventh great-grandfather (first Wright in McRoberts) is buried on the hill above my old elementary school, which is now in the possession of a motorcycle gang. Group? They’re fine people I think but their whole deal is motorcycling.
And what’s the best thing to do if I was visiting?
Sit on the porch and eat some pickled corn with the locals. Walk up to Barker’s for a Slush Puppy. Ride across Dunham Hill in the bed of a pickup truck.
That sounds really very cool. In two sentences describe your new album, All Those Days Of Drinking Dust.
Ten original songs about sacrifice, longing, regret, reality checks, self-awareness, and hope. It’s my first full-length, produced by Duane Lundy and featuring a duet with author Silas House.
What can you tell me about the title track?
I wrote it to process the feelings I was having at a time when my father had recently retired after 36 years mining coal underground (as opposed to surface mining) and I was just starting my out-loud music journey, which entailed self-promotion, which entailed telling people I was a coal miner's daughter, etc.
‘The Sea’ is a wonderful song, what can you tell me about it?
Thank you! I started it with that little guitar lick at the top. I wanted an extended metaphor song - if you were this, I would be this - through which to talk about love having no bounds/taking all forms.
Which song has been most surprising for you, from the start of writing it to how it turned out on the album.
Probably ‘No Bottom’. I got it a few years ago, and it felt like a breakthrough at the time. I remember thinking—yes, this is the sort of song I want to write. And the way it turned out on the album is much different from how I imagined it but really nice.
How did you go about writing songs for the album? What’s your “process”?
These songs were written in all sorts of ways. My process is all over the place. A lot of times the first inkling of a song will be a phrase. Sometimes I'll get a chord progression or a melody. Sometimes I'll hear another song and want to mimic a particular aspect of it. I love writing the songs that demand to be written, so you have to get out of the way and take care of it immediately. Others take longer or hit a wall. I have so many song starts and scraps from over the years.
I know we could just google it these days, but how would you explain appalachian to someone not familiar with the term?
Broadly, it refers to the mountain range that runs from Alabama in Canada and that is one of the most biodiverse regions in North America. Culturally, it's more complex. It usually refers to the culture and people of the central and southern Appalachian Mountains.
Your Twitter profile says you’re a dialect coach. Any interesting stories you can tell me?
I worked on The Evening Hour, a film that premiered at Sundance in 2020. Going to Sundance was the last fun thing I did before the pandemic hit. I don't know that I can pick out one story to tell you. When I think back to being on set in 2018, it was just a wonderful learning experience and so cool to see how a feature film is made. I'd love to do more dialect work in the future, but I'm a one-trick pony - I can only help on Appalachian/Southern dialect.
I believe you’re a fiction writer as well. Obviously they’re very different types of medium but how does writing fiction differ from songwriting?
I am! Songwriting has more distinct considerations. More planes for conveying meaning. Tempo, key, words, melody, chord progression, timbre and inflection, ultimately instrumentation. I could probably go on. Fiction has a lot of considerations too, but they seem to live in the same neighbourhood. I guess that's the way to say it. Who are your characters; what is the tone, setting, plot, theme, etc. But songwriting sometimes has those same considerations in addition to the ones I mentioned. As someone who does both, they do feel like different things. When I'm writing songs and neglecting fiction, I miss it. And that's been the case lately.
With the poor $ numbers from streaming, what’s the best way for people to support you and your music?
What else is coming up in 2022?
A few more shows. And then hopefully some intensive post-album-release recovery time and time to write.
If you could recommend one artist to listen to this week, who would it be?
Finally, how do you take your coffee?
I like coffee that doesn’t taste like coffee. So milky and sweet without being too sweet. I drink it only occasionally—to get things done, not for fun.
To find out more about Tiffany you can visit her website, and check out what she’s up to on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Her album, All Those Days Of Drinking Dust is streaming now. Tidal link below.
