Paramore’s Zac Farro and Hayley Williams Unearth Williams’ Grandfathers Album

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Hayley Williams’s grandfather, Rusty Williams, will release his debut album, at 78, on Zac Farro’s label Congrats Records.

At the urging of his granddaughter, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, at 78, Rusty Williams’ debut record, Grand Man, will finally see the light of day. The album will be released on her bandmate Zac Farro’s label Congrats Records, on February 14th. Grand Man is a testament to music as one of the most evergreen artforms, and proof that it’s never too late to let your creations be shared with the world around you. To mark the occasion, Congrats Records has shared the single “Knocking (At Your Door)” from the forthcoming record. Listen HERE. 

Hayley Williams was deeply influenced by her earliest encounters with music - the playing and songs of her grandfather, Rusty. He began writing songs as a child, sang in a church choir, joined a band, wrote jingles for local businesses and eventually recorded an album in the 70’s - his life’s work. Though Rusty would talk about the album often, Hayley and her bandmates had never heard it and didn’t believe it existed, until it was unearthed recently by the senior Williams old production partner. 

“So many people our age are mining these albums for tones and things you can’t even replicate,” Hayley says. “And Grandat has a way of cutting to the core of a feeling, and not overcomplicating it. Which we tend to do, because the world is hard. It’s nice when you can hear something plain and simple and know that it is true.” “I thought that it was a crime that these songs were sitting there on the shelf,” says Zac Farro
 
Grand Man evokes the relaxed pop of Herb Alpert and Burt Bachrach and sprinkles in a bit of the Nashville Sound, to create a gorgeous, warm and crackling body of work. But Grand Man is no time capsule: built on the grains of the past, it is a vibrant, living piece of art from a man who had so much to say. It just took the world a minute to be able to hear it. 

“I don’t expect anything, and I’m too old to be famous,” Rusty says with his signature acerbic wit. “But I just want to know someone liked what I did, and to be touched by whatever the hell they are listening to. I want people to see how it felt when things were real.”

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