One-armed guitarist peddles ‘Snake Oil' in Destin

Lefty Williams has been playing guitar literally longer than he can remember.

“I’ve been playing since I was four years old,” Williams told The Log. “My guitar goes back further than my memory.”

The Atlanta-based Lefty Williams Band will perform at Hog’s Breath this week, including songs from Williams’ second album, “Snake Oil,” which came out last month. Williams said the title “is a metaphor for the music-industry types that aren’t on the up and up ... It’s the whole image of the old snake oil salesman pulling cart into town, promising everyone the placebo was going to cure every ailment.”

Born without a right arm, the four-year-old Williams began strumming his guitar with the “nubb” of his arm, according to his Web site: “I was just using the skin on my arm, the same way a finger-style player would use his thumb. Then I wanted to play faster.”

A prosthetician provided a sock-like leather wrap that didn’t work and tore apart Williams’ prosthetic arm, but Williams, by then 6 years old, reworked it into something he could use. He began teaching himself to play, studying the songs he liked, such as “Stairway to Heaven,” and reverse-engineering the guitar chords.

At 11, Williams began playing in a death-metal band, then went on to play bass in the school orchestra, where he learned how to read music. After graduating from, then teaching at the Atlanta Institute of Music, Williams decided to form his own band. His first album, Big Plans, came out in 2006.

Williams said that although he plays many different styles, “Snake Oil,” at the suggestion of his wife, is mostly blues rock: “I’ve got a bit of a natural flair for the blues.”

Visiting Destin, Williams said, makes him feel anything but blue: “I absolutely love to travel. I like seeing new places and meeting new people. Every day is different, every day is a challenge, every day has its own ups and down.”

WANT TO GO?
The Lefty Williams Band will perform at Hog’s Breath in Destin from tonight through Sunday, starting 9 p.m. each night.
For more information about Williams, visit www.myspace.com/lefty_music.