Baltimore is a city full of vacant, decaying houses — places that could be real homes if the building and surrounding neighborhoods were properly rebuilt. That's the subject of a new documentary called Saving Etting Street. The film, which is currently on the festival circuit, is about the efforts of Shelley Halstead, a carpenter who trains Black women in all the skills that they'd need to refurbish those houses, and about her efforts to turn a single Baltimore block into a community of homeowners. Dena Fisher and Amy Scott directed the film, and it's got a soundtrack from fingerstyle guitarist Yasmin Williams.
Yasmin Williams is from Northern Virginia, not too far from Baltimore. She released her album Acadia in 2024, and she was in the news last year for a bunch of different reasons. Booked to perform at the Kennedy Center, she shared the hostile email responses she got from the Trump-installed executive director, and then she explained her decision to perform at the venue anyway. (This was before Trump put his name on it.) After playing the show, she wrote that she was heckled by an organized group of MAGA Republicans, who were escorted out. Now, she has soundtracked her first documentary, and it must be nice to get involved with something that couldn't be further from all of that, even if it's right next door geographically.
Williams played acoustic guitar and 12-string on her Saving Etting Street score, as well as piano, kora, and synthesizers. The only other musicians is upright bassist Herman Burney. I'm on my first listen to Williams' soundtrack now, and it's a lovely, contemplative set of instrumentals. Listen below.
Saving Etting Street will screen this afternoon as part of the Maryland Film Festival.
