Am I ever gonna see her show again? Music legend’s daughter steps out of the shadows
Like her famous dad, Ami Williamson is a singer-songwriter, but she’s travelled her own path and after a long absence is returning to Brisbane with her acclaimed One Woman Show.
Have you ever listened to the lyrics of The Angels classic hit, Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again? I mean, really listened?
The way Doc Neeson sang it was compelling, if a bit frenetic. Ami Williamson slows it down a bit – a lot actually – on her new album Sing You Out of Me. The result is as powerful as, say, Jeff Buckley’s version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. That was a cover as good as the original and even better in some ways. Williamson’s cover of The Angels song allows us to focus on the words.
You can see her and Neeson jamming on the song on YouTube. Neeson died not long after that session in 2014.
Sydney-based Williamson is now touring off the back of her album and the last date on her tour is a Brisbane gig on December 12 at the Royal Hotel Nundah, where she will perform her popular One Woman Show. (Two sets, no support act, according to the publicity blurb.)
She promises she will play Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again?, the last song on the album. For her, it’s something of a risky novelty.
“I’ve never recorded a cover before,” Williamson admits. “It’s dangerous doing a cover if it’s a song that is loved the way that song is. You have to bring something new to it, though, otherwise why bother? I kind of figured it was worthwhile because Doc Neeson’s lyric writing was so gorgeous.”
Written by frontman Neeson along with John Brewster and Rick Brewster, the lyrics were inspired by the tragic death of a friend’s girlfriend (or a personal acquaintance of Neeson’s), who was killed in a motorcycle or vehicle accident. The song expresses deep mourning, the feeling of lingering memory and the loneliness of searching a crowd for someone who is gone.
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Williamson’s version is soulful and very moving. She performs it with a clarity that makes it very accessible and accentuates the poignant lyrics. She met Neeson when she performed for Australian troops abroad, including in Afghanistan.
“Doc was very charming and eloquent,” she recalls.
Sing You Out of Me is a work of striking candour that sees Williamson write, perform and produce with total creative control. Straddling alternative folk and jazz to craft intimate, harmonically rich songs while playing piano and guitar herself. The record is co-produced by four-time ARIA Award winner Matt Fell.
Williamson, 48, is the daughter of Australian music legend John Williamson, but has carved out a fiercely independent path. Known for her dynamic one-woman shows, she pairs formidable musicianship with razor-sharp wit – think Tim Minchin-esque observational humour meets the genre-blending, deeply personal songwriting of Joni Mitchell.
Sing You Out of Me is Williamson at her most exposed. Moving between deeply private reflection and pointed social commentary, she writes with unflinching honesty about family, love, motherhood, sexual liberation and the women who paved the way before her.
Across its tracks, the album challenges taboos around female sexuality on Go South, pays a tender ode to her son on Darling Boy and draws a line between a suffragette’s fight and institutional gender bias on Emily Davison. Joy McKean serves as a heartfelt thank you to the country music trailblazer and wife of Slim Dusty, who once gave Williamson advice on navigating the industry as a mother.
The album closer is the only cover on the record, that reimagining of The Angels’ Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again?
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Music has been in Williamson’s blood since before she could read. She has been singing since the age of three and spent much of her life touring alongside her father.
This unique upbringing shaped her love of storytelling and deep respect for the craft of songwriting. Having long since stepped into a celebrated spotlight of her own, she has built a critically acclaimed catalogue, with her most recent 2018 album, The Quilt, earning high praise.
She studied dance as a youngster and also classical singing and piano at the prestigious Sydney Conservatorium of Music before winning a scholarship to further her studies at a renowned music institute in Germany.
Upon her return home to Australia, she was accepted into Opera Australia. However, having always written poetry in her youth, the natural combination of music and words eventually drew her back to her first love – songwriting.
After writing and releasing her debut 2009 album, Close to Home, she took her music to the stage and has been performing ever since, with her acclaimed One Woman Show being embraced by audiences everywhere.
While there is only one cover on her latest album there will be others in her show, including Bob Dylan’s It Ain’t Me Babe and that Leonard Cohen Classic, Hallelujah, which make sense.
She also has an amusing song called Al Pacino, a “pro-cougar” ode that pokes fun at and critiques older Hollywood actors’ dating choices by gender-flipping traditional relationship age gaps.
“It’s a funny song for the show, not serious at all,” she says. “People seem to like it, especially cougars. That is my dream, to get a cougar following.”
One Woman Show plays the Royal Hotel Nundah on December 12, 7pm.
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