That, however, hasn’t kept Williams from being able to perform songs from “Dream,” which was released in February 2007, on tour — even in his solo shows.

“All of these songs were written as solo acoustic songs,” Williams explained in a recent interview. “All of them were played so many times before they were even recorded. So to me it’s easy to translate the material. For the people who are hearing those songs on the record for the first time and getting used to those arrangements, they hear me live, I could see where it could be a drag, because it’s something very stripped down from what they’re used to. But those people that have been coming to see me live over the past couple of years know that those are all solo acoustic songs and they’re kind of special versions on the record.”

As Williams hinted, the “Dream” project did not happen quickly. In fact, he had begun making a list of artists he hoped to work with — including guitarist John Scofield, banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, String Cheese Incident, former Grateful Dead guitarist-singer Bob Weir and guitarist Steve Kimock — several years ago, and recording sessions for the CD began some three years ago.

“Everyone seemed really into it and said yes. The thing they didn’t say was when,” Williams said. “So that’s where the extended time comes in. Instead of pressuring people for a date and giving them a deadline, I’d wait until they were good with it.”

Williams’ patience paid off in a CD that is highly enjoyable and eclectic, with material that ranges from the pleasantly ramshackle folk of “Cadillac” (featuring Weir) to the funky “Life” (which features, of all things, talk box guitar from guest Jeff Covert) to the reggae/hip-hop inflections of “Ninja Of Love,” a song Williams wrote specifically for his guests on the song, Michael Franti and Spearhead.
While “Dream” is technically his current CD (a career retrospective album, “12,” was released in the fall), Williams said his live shows won’t really promote that album.

“I don’t really go out and focus on that material and try to play that material off of the record,” he said. “This is my 11th record, so I can draw from tons of different material, plus I love playing covers and I’m constantly learning new covers.”

Williams continues to do an occasional solo show in his unique one-man-band format.

On stage, Williams augments the standard instruments of guitar and vocals with a variety of other instruments, including bass, keyboards and drums. Using a technique he calls live phrase sampling, he creates the illusion of having several musicians on stage by stepping on an effects button to record, for instance, a keyboard part. By pressing the button again, the keyboard part gets played back, and Williams can then layer on another part on a different instrument. Repeating this process creates a multi-instrument backing track over which Williams can play and sing live.

But most of his concerts find him in a new setting with his recently formed band, the WMDs.

The group features drummer Jeff Sipe (who has played with Phish’s Trey Anastasio, Leftover Salmon and Col. Bruce Hampton’s Aquarium Rescue Unit, guitarist Gibb Droll and Keith Moseley (bassist from String Cheese Incident). 

Williams, a native of Fredericksburg, Va., who self-released his first CD, “Freek,” in 1994, noted that he only started exploring solo performing in the first place out of necessity.

“I guess the thing that drove me to go solo was simplicity, affordability and logistics,” he said. “I couldn’t really afford to pay musicians what it takes for them to come out on the road, their salary plus their hotels and food and everything. The money wasn’t there. And then things started to work as a solo act, and it started to work out that I could afford to bring them. But at that time I was kind of under the philosophy of it’s not broke, why try to fix it.

“Now I just think it’s time to maybe stray away from the solo thing and do something completely different and approach that with a total exciting freshness,” Williams said. “Then maybe that will help me go back to my solo show with a rejuvenated energy. But I think right now we’re taking it slowly.”

Williams knows the direction he thinks his music will take in the full-band format, and he’s curious how his songs will evolve along the way.

“A lot of it’s going to be reinvented,” he said of his song catalog. “I’m kind of going for a positive, upbeat, danceable kind of world beat/jazz/funk type of thing. That’s kind of what I’m going for.”