Alan Williams is currently a professor of music at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, a position he will retire from at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. He has just released his third solo album, Floating on the Dreamline, which demonstrates his acumen as a performer and writer with songs informed by the intelligence and elegance of great pop music (The Beatles) and a broad spectrum of popular music idioms, ranging from Americana to prog. However, the disparate nature of those genres never reveals itself on the album because Williams’ mastery as a composer lies in his ability to seamlessly blend these diverse elements into a style that is uniquely his own.
Joined by drummer Ben Wittman (Sting, Paula Cole, Laurie Anderson) and bassist Greg Porter (Aimee Mann, Talking to Animals), as well as former Natalie Merchant bassist Mike Rivard (Club d’Elf, Boston Pops), as well as UMass Lowell colleague John Shirley and former students Matt Swanton and Julia James, Williams delivers 13 songs that will leave listeners eager to explore more of his songbook.
In this conversation, Williams speaks about his roles in the academic world, including launching the UMass Lowell Album Ensemble Projects, for which Williams has guided students through ensemble rehearsals and recordings of classic albums such as King Crimson’s Red and Radiohead’s In Rainbows, his thoughts on his upcoming retirement and what became of saxophone solos in pop songs.
Host/Producer: Jedd Beaudoin
Theme music: Torin Andersen
