"It's the intimate conversation that happens as a solo acoustic performer. That's what it's always been about for me," he said. "It's putting a little bit of yourself out there and a little bit of objective experience that everybody can understand, share and feel."

The Madison native will perform solo acoustic at various Border Books and Music stores throughout New Jersey in March. He will appear in Watchung March 2 and in Bridgewater on March 30. For more details, check shows at www.williamsmithmusic.com.

"I'm out there alone, so most of the challenges are performance-based. I'm trying to engage the audience as a good performer should. But, at the same time, you don't won't to be an intrusion at a bookstore. You want to find music that's enjoyable," he said.

Smith will be performing songs from his new CD, "Living Will," and from his other two CDs, "Looking Forward to Looking Back" and "Unvarnished."

Seven of the new tracks are original songs. "Life Has Its Consequences" is rooted in contemporary politics. "Fenced Out, Locked In" examines how one party in a marriage bears more responsibility than the other in child rearing and shows the impact of that stress. "Young Picasso" is about a young, fictional painter who deals with the challenges of dividing his time between separated parents. "One Track Mind" is a positive look at obsessive love.

Four are revisions of earlier songs from his first two CDs. "Autumn Way" and "Rye Fields" originally appeared on his debut CD. Smith filled out the band instrumentation on the sparse original version of the former song. He added a full arrangement to the latter song. "Turning, Turning" and "Easter in Snowshill" originally appeared in acoustic versions on his second CD. He added drums, bass and piano to "Turning, Turning" and he added strings to the new arrangement of the latter song. "I tried to look back and give them a new angle or a new look," he said.

He does his own unique cover versions of Seals and Crofts' "Summer Breeze" and Howard Jones' "No One Is to Blame."

Smith, 36, and his wife and three children now live in Wall Township in Monmouth County. He works as an English supervisor and teacher at Red Bank Regional High School in Monmouth County. His literary songs reference e.e. cummings, J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" and other modern poets and authors. "I've always loved writers who can avoid the cliché and say something we all feel in a slightly different way," he said. "Those little nuggets seem to find their way into my approach to things."