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‘If acoustic blues with a sting in the tail is your thing, go no further than Kurt Williams and his new band, the Broken Hearted Mexicans. Williams’s singing and guitar playing will sandblast you with their raw conviction.’ 

Sydney Morning Herald (13/08/04)

‘Without amplification the legendary National produces a sound considerably louder than a similar set-up made of wood and although Williams’ included a pick-up he kept right in the loop of pure rawness by selecting the rich as the Delta silt of Lover Man, for his second and final solo effort.

His band The Broken Hearted Mexicans flowed onstage giving the punchy sound some fat, rich tone. A spare sounding lightly brushed snare dusted out the bottom end while the impressive sounding harmonica of Nick Williams hit some classic 2 draw half step bent notes.

With Kurt using the classic blues distortion of the tremulous slide effect to all its wavering glory on the final songs Cane Train, Piece of Work & Fruit Picker the harvest references saw the trio jam into a thick molasses of hope by howling in unison, “Fruit pickers are we…” These vintage elements accentuated most of their songs without sounding overly nostalgic and swelled their set into a full and flowing crescendo.’

Butterbox Media (Review @ The Basement, 17/01/05)

There’s something quintessentially Australian about the image that graces the cover of the debut album, Paddock Bomb, by singer, songwriter and guitarist Kurt Williams, a mid-‘70s Holden, the roof ripped off, sitting in a dusty paddock, the sun low on the horizon.  It’s very much the ethos Williams himself wants to capture in his music. 

“I wanted to make a contemporary Australian folk blues album, rather than a ‘roots’ album. The vision for the album was to keep it rough and raw, but quiet sophisticated at the same time so I think it’s got a bit of grunt in it…I love writers like Neil Murray and I think it’s really important for Australian artists to get into writing about their own place, even if it’s just writing about living in the streets of Sydney and having a good time or whatever. The music can just be a soundtrack to the story you’re feeling.”

And you can’t get a better idea of life growing up in a country town, as Williams did, in Ocean Grove, Victoria, than the title track itself. Not that every song is necessarily based on his own experiences.  Suspicion is the kind of ‘murder song’ that would do Nick Cave proud.

“That’s a dirty song isn’t it? I reckon it’s good to have a murder song on the album. I think it’s important to make people feel a bit uncomfortable every so often. I want people to have a good time, but then again I want them to think. The song is about knocking someone off, and obviously that’s not something I know about, but I can relate to the feeling, especially when you’re younger, of intense jealousies, passions and anger.” 

“On the other hand Nasty Piece of Work talks about our shortcomings in very simple terms. With everything that’s happened over the past few years, all totally out of control, the song looks at just how stuffed we really are, to what extremes people will go to, which is something I’m really interested in. And we’re all guilty of it at some stage in our lives, whether they’re really bad or mildly bad things, I think we can all relate to the fact that we’re not perfect.”

Along with harmonica player and fellow Victorian Nick Williams (no relation), Williams keeps his folk blues as raw and ‘real’ as he can by concentrating on writing and playing on National Resonator guitars. 

“I try and investigate notes, really get to the essence of notes and structure. The songs on this album are all done in variations of C and D tunings. I’m just totally going through certain tunings and getting out as much as I can because I feel that’s the only way to really nail something. 

The Drum Media (10/08/04)