Millions of people around the world know and love Paramore, a Tennessee-based rock band that has never stopped releasing energetic music throughout its 21-year career. Fans especially adore the band’s powerhouse vocalist Hayley Williams, but not as many are familiar with her grandfather, Rusty Williams — a man whose influence pulled through younger generations for the Grammy-winning band.
“I feel like I got my musical education as a kid from Grandat showing me,” says Hayley Williams in an interview with Garden & Gun Magazine. “By the time I came around, I don’t think he had a guitar in the house really anymore, but he did teach me to play the drums, and we always were talking about music or listening to music.”
A knack for music appears to run in the family. On Feb. 14, Rusty Williams released his debut album, “Grand Man,” at 78 years old. The album is a melodic soft-rock record with some baroque pop influences and is already a solid triumph in beautiful songwriting in its own right. It also comes with quite an interesting backstory: Back in the 1970s, Williams recorded 13 original songs with his longtime friend, Frank Morris. However, when Nashville record labels urged them to go “more country,” Williams refused and eventually shelved the project.
Fast forward to 2024, when Morris stumbles upon the old recordings and sends them to the Williams family. Paramore drummer Zac Farro hears them and urges Williams to release the songs through his independent record label, Congrats Records. Thus, Williams’ album finally saw the light of day — a whopping 50 years after its initial recording.
A Valentine’s Day release was fitting for the record, as much of the album consists of romantic, tranquil serenades dedicated to his wife of 60 years, Sharon. The album opener and lead single, “Knocking (At Your Door),” captures this feeling with a breezy melody and effervescent saxophone solo that captures the feeling of young romance.
Other standout love ballads from the album include “Angel Eyes” and “Every Time I’m High,” which each take a reflective, meditative tone to express the feeling of unadulterated love. “If the world were mine, I’d give it all to you / And every dream you dreamed, I’d make them all come true / I’ll hold you close, my love will never die / And in my arms, no one will ever make you cry,” he sings in the second verse of “Angel Eyes.” Innocent and intimate at once, the song’s stripped-back guitar instrumental makes it especially perfect for a slow dance.
While the love ballads are wholesome in their own right, listeners are enamored with the song “I Can’t Live Here Anymore,” which conveys the feeling of needing to escape from a place tainted by lost love. In one of the verses, he sings, “I’ve tried so hard not to let it show / And pretend that I don’t hear / But through these walls that echo now / The sound of love’s too near.” The thoughtful lyricism in this song helps it stand out from the rest of the album’s more optimistic and saccharine themes, and the key change in the final chorus only emphasizes its powerful imagery.
One of the album’s strongest points is the penultimate track, “Someone Who Happened To Me,” with its powerful opening and its instrumental break about halfway through the track reflecting how Williams and Morris could do a great deal with the little they had at the time writing and recording in Morris’s home “Studio in the City.”
Overall, it’s beautiful that an album like “Grand Man” was able to be released at all, even if the production quality may sound somewhat dated. The grainy quality throughout is understandable, given the rigorous process of digitizing physical tapes from 1974. However, it adds a lo-fi atmosphere to the album that feels utterly nostalgic.
The album is perfect for anyone looking for some easy-listening music. It’s hard to believe an album like this could come out in 2025 — this project truly feels like a time capsule to a different era, a testament to following your dreams regardless of your age. In a featurette for the album, Williams offers this advice: “Keep chasing — don’t quit. You get an idea, and if you don’t take it to the end, you wasted your time and that’s not helping anybody.”
Contact Brishti Sarkar at [email protected].