Will Kimbrough

It’s good to be Will Kimbrough (if you can stand the hours). He’s respected — make that revered — as a guitarist, as a producer, as a touring singer-songwriter, and here he is, in 2019, an Americana artist, finding some serious success and acclaim in the blues world. “I’m tooting my horn,” Will says, “Shemekia Copeland’s album [which Will produced and played on] is up for Album of the Year and “Ain’t Got Time for Hate” [co-written by Will] is up for Song of the Year at the Blues Music Awards. I co-wrote the Song of the Year in Americana U.K. [“Southern Wind,” with Dean Owens], played on Blind Boys of Alabama sessions … That certainly sums up what I do, especially when combined with the release of the new solo record: artist, musician, producer, writer.”  Believe it or not, he’s not bragging. He really does all those things and his part time gig is as Emmylou Harris’s guitarist and harmony singer — before that he was Rodney Crowell’s, and before that, Todd Snider’s. And damned if he didn’t go ahead and carve himself a successful solo-album career during all this other stuff that he was doing. With seven or eight or nine solo records and multiple releases as a member of Willie Sugarcapps and Daddy, Will’s career continues to grow. It is the little engine that will not rest.