RARE TOUR FROM THE STAY-AT-HOME GUITAR MAN

John Williams is no Andres Segovia.

“In Segovia’s generation, the on-the-road life style was established,” the Australian-born guitarist says. “For other younger players these days, it’s become a security thing, their way of keeping themselves in the public eye.”

Not Williams, who proudly counts himself among those musicians able to resist the temptations of touring.

“I’m just not interested in traveling the world all the time, playing the same program night after night,” he claims. “When you’re on the road you just stop living. I really gave up touring in 1973. That was the last time I was in California. Of course, I never did a lot of it before that, but now I head out for only three weeks a year. This year, it’s America.”

Revealing no apparent signs of jet lag a day after arriving in San Francisco, Williams expresses no regrets over his 13-year absence, one that has, perhaps, made many hearts here grow fonder--his recitals at Ambassador Auditorium tonight and Sunday have been sold out for months.

At 44, Williams has opted for journeys of a different sort: musical excursions into folk, rock, jazz and pop. And all without ever leaving the London city limits.

“It’s an extraordinary musical city with an immense body of music-making. The variety there is incredible. If you live in London all the time, you can’t help being affected by it,” he says.

Williams’ varied discography can serve as a road-map of these travels: Recordings include melodies set for marimbas and guitar, outings with jazz singer Cleo Laine, rock-classical experiments in a quintet called Sky, a salute to the folk song, and most recently, a folk-Muzak homage to his beloved adopted hometown, “Echoes of London.”

Back home, he has become a frequent guest at jazz and folk clubs, trading licks onstage with singer Ralph McTell. Not to mention jam sessions with the likes of former Who guitarist Pete Townshend.

Of course, not all of these collaborations have met with approval from guitar purists, critics or Williams.

“If some people don’t like what I do, that’s fine. I don’t like everything I do. Remember that thing I did with Townshend (a jam on the Who classic “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” performed at one of the filmed “Secret Policeman’s Ball” benefits)? Now that was embarrassing, wasn’t it? I’m not a very good improviser. I just don’t have the experience, even though my father was a fine jazz guitarist.

“All this is not a self-conscious direction I’m taking. The guitar simply offers more opportunities for experimentation.

“But what a lot of people don’t realize is that I still do purely classical stuff. During the years I was with Sky, I made more purely classical recordings. But people thought I wasn’t doing anything else.

“What’s disappointing,” he comments, “is that some people think in terms of compartments.”

Such occasional strolls along nearly every musical avenue the guitar can travel are providing benefits that Williams is only now discovering. “I think my various collaborations have affected my classical playing--at least indirectly,” he theorizes. “Pop techniques have an affinity for this natural rhythm of breathing in and breathing out. Even violinists use it--bowing up, and bowing down. The trouble with guitar is that we are all taught to play everything evenly. The same with piano.

“Once you’re aware of this, you can try to compensate, to think of the guitar more melodically, as if it were a bowed instrument.”

Not surprisingly, Williams shows no signs of abandoning his frequent pop excursions. A jazz piece written for him by former Cleo Laine pianist Paul Hart will soon be recorded. “I’m all for people writing things for me, but the future of the guitar doesn’t rest there,” he notes. “We all must participate in what’s going on.”

Speaking of the future, when can we expect to see Williams here again--if ever? “Oh, I’ll be back in three years, probably,” he responds. “In the meantime, if the work stops or changes too much, I’ll go merrily digging cabbages.”

Imagine Segovia doing that.