If you are at all into the local music scene, you might know John Williams as the event coordinator for the new local hotspot Hat City Kitchen in Orange. However, with that role at HCK, Williams is deep into his second or third life re-invention.  

Born in Michigan, Williams' family moved around as his father's career at AT&T demanded, finally settling in Chester, NJ, which he calls his hometown (he attended Delbarton). After graduating Williams migrated to Los Angeles where he enrolled in the Guitar Institute of Technology (now the Musician's Institute), a place designed to teach working skills to musicians. He told Patch, "There was some culture shock going from Chester to Hollywood. It was a forward thinking place. There had never been a guitar school like that before. It was very creative, like an incubator for formal technique." He studied with Howard Roberts, a well-known Hollywood session player as well as other guitar luminaries such as Tommy Tedesco, Pat Metheney, Joe D'Orio and Pat Martino. 

Williams said, "I came home thinking I could be a musician and I did have interviews but they were for cruise ships and Captain & Tennille tribute bands." Instead, Williams went his own way and joined the punk band Ice Nine, eventually opening for Boy George and Culture Club at Madison Square Garden in the 1980s. "That was very exciting," he said. "The week before, we had played at a local club for 25 people and then on Thanksgiving night at the Garden we played for 18,000." 

Williams played many legendary New York City venues in the 1980s and '90s including CBGBs, Danceteria, The Ritz and the Peppermint lounge, as well as New Jersey joints like The Dirt Club in Bloomfield. Eventually he joined Hoboken-based The Cucumbers, lead by local musicians Deena Shoshkes and Jon Fried (who are now involved with the Songs of the Spectrum project).

"I played with them for five or six years," he told us. "We recorded albums in London and New York. At the time, Deena worked at Skyline Studio on 37^th Street in the city. I had a background in electronics, I was always the guy who could fix the copier, and I translated that talent for business electronics into being a studio tech."

Williams would repair equipment for the band: "When the console caught on fire, they would call me. I came in on the artist's side and went over to the studio side. First, I was the night guy, then the day guy and then I became management." At Skyline, Williams found himself rubbing shoulders with name acts such as Nile Rodgers, the B52s, David Bowie, Thompson Twins, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Diana Ross. 

In the early '90s, Williams snagged a studio dream job and left the two-room Skyline to go to the giant Sony Music Studios, which had 50 rooms and television shooting stages. 

"Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Jay-Z, Beyonce all recorded there, " Williams told Patch. "Because Sony was so big, on any given day, we could have say, Paul Simon, Nancy Sinatra and Aerosmith recording. I ran a staff at that point with 20 technicians working for me."  

Williams moved out here in 1993 and has lived in both Maplewood and South Orange. Today he teaches music, guitar and bass, to local students and, of course, is the event coordinator at Hat City Kitchen. 

He became involved with HCK and the Valley Arts District through his acquaintance with Patrick Morrissy, HANDS Executive Director. "We got to talking about the Valley Arts district," Williams said, "and Pat asked for my help putting together the music venue that evolved into Hat City Kitchen. That's all my equipment in the building. I'm the guy that does the music, the events coordinator." Because he's so plugged into the music community, he was able to reach out to local bands who readily agreed to play the untried venue.  

Williams promotes Hat City Kitchen through the HCK Facebook page. He also started a thread on MaplewoodOnline and has used the e-mail contacts that he collected over the years. Behind the scenes there has been a huge community outreach effort, which has been successful by any measure—with the brand new place scoring five filled-to-capacity weekends since opening during a brutal recession. 

Williams is also one of the founders of Maplewoodstock. He told us the story of how the popular concert came to be. "About eight or nine years ago" he said, "I was talking to Jim Buchanan, Maplewood's Cultural Affairs supervisor, about the number of kids hanging out on Maplewood Avenue on Friday nights. We had the idea to start a concert and our first impulse was to hold it in the train station parking lot. Gary Shippy and Jamie Ross from MaplewoodOnline got involved, we became the seed of the project. The name Maplewoodstock just came from brainstorming." They later decided to move the concert to Memorial Park. 

"We wanted it to be a free concert and we invited three or four bands. I was able to borrow P.A. equipment from Sony Music—we brought it out on Friday and brought it back on Monday. Jim had a friend with a bulldozer trailer and that was the stage," said Williams.

"We just had music at first, and then later added vendors. This year Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk is the headliner. Competition for the 25 or 30 slots for local bands is fierce—there's a lot of talent." Anyone who's thinking about playing should act quickly since the application process is closing soon.  

Williams currently plays guitar with The Caterpillar Book and bass with New Day Dawn. His daughter Caitlin is at UNC and his son Caleb (a drummer) and daughter Ellie are both students at Columbia High School where they play Ultimate Frisbee.