Biography
Yasmin Williams, an acoustic fingerstyle guitarist, crafts compositions that balance calm introspection with fresh creativity, centering her work on lap tapping, a method in which the guitar rests face-up across the lap so both hands can navigate the fretboard simultaneously. She augments this core approach through tapped harmonics, bowing, percussive strikes, alternative tunings, and tap shoes, all of which shaped her debut full-length, the 2018 album Unwind, that placed on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Her sophomore effort, Urban Driftwood, arrived in 2021 and earned broad critical praise, securing a subsequent recording agreement with Nonesuch. The label’s first release from Williams was the 2024 album Acadia, which introduced guest vocalists Aoife O'Donovan and Darlingside.
Raised in Woodbridge, Virginia, Williams first grew curious about the guitar after encountering Guitar Hero 2 as a preteen. An electric guitar and amplifier soon arrived as a gift, and she began developing her technique entirely by ear. She later added 12-string, classical, and bass guitar before concentrating on acoustic playing. While still in high school she issued her first recording, the self-produced 2012 EP Serendipity.
At New York University she pursued studies in music theory and composition, capturing the school’s annual student talent contest UltraViolet Live! during her freshman year and performing before a sold-out crowd at the Skirball Center. She earned her Bachelor of Music in May 2018, the same month she independently released Unwind. One month afterward NPR’s Weekend Edition spotlighted her work, and by July Unwind had climbed to number 15 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart. The 2019 single “Take That Step,” recorded with New York-based singer/songwriter Jason Bembry, followed. Williams returned in 2021 with Urban Driftwood on the Spinster label; cut during the COVID-19 lockdowns and shaped by the Black Lives Matter movement, the album featured cellist Taryn Wood and hand drumming from Amadou Kouyate, a 150th-generation djeli of the Kouyate family. The strong critical response to Urban Driftwood led to her contract with the legendary Nonesuch imprint, which issued her third album, Acadia, in 2024. For the first time incorporating lyrics, Williams worked with outside singers including Aoife O'Donovan and the band Darlingside along with instrumentalists Dom Flemons and Immanuel Wilkins.
Raised in Woodbridge, Virginia, Williams first grew curious about the guitar after encountering Guitar Hero 2 as a preteen. An electric guitar and amplifier soon arrived as a gift, and she began developing her technique entirely by ear. She later added 12-string, classical, and bass guitar before concentrating on acoustic playing. While still in high school she issued her first recording, the self-produced 2012 EP Serendipity.
At New York University she pursued studies in music theory and composition, capturing the school’s annual student talent contest UltraViolet Live! during her freshman year and performing before a sold-out crowd at the Skirball Center. She earned her Bachelor of Music in May 2018, the same month she independently released Unwind. One month afterward NPR’s Weekend Edition spotlighted her work, and by July Unwind had climbed to number 15 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart. The 2019 single “Take That Step,” recorded with New York-based singer/songwriter Jason Bembry, followed. Williams returned in 2021 with Urban Driftwood on the Spinster label; cut during the COVID-19 lockdowns and shaped by the Black Lives Matter movement, the album featured cellist Taryn Wood and hand drumming from Amadou Kouyate, a 150th-generation djeli of the Kouyate family. The strong critical response to Urban Driftwood led to her contract with the legendary Nonesuch imprint, which issued her third album, Acadia, in 2024. For the first time incorporating lyrics, Williams worked with outside singers including Aoife O'Donovan and the band Darlingside along with instrumentalists Dom Flemons and Immanuel Wilkins.
Albums
Singles
