From the first beautiful piano notes that open Holly Williams sophomore album (the first for Mercury Records Nashville), one gets the sense that “Here With Me” isn’t the typical contemporary country music album.  As the daughter of Hank Williams, Jr., Holly Williams was always going to have to face that fact, because even though she may have hated to face it, she was and will continue to be compared to her father, her grandfather and even her brother Hank III.  While Holly isn’t anywhere near the ‘honky tonker,’ the men in her family are, she did inherit the songwriting gifts from both her daddy and grandfather. 
 
Those opening notes are found in the gorgeous “He’s Making a Fool Out of You,” a song that’s gloriously unlike anything that is currently played on country radio.  Written by Holly with Chuck Jones (“Your Love Amazes Me”), “He’s Making a Fool Out of You” is the kind of cerebral, analytical ballad that Mary Chapin Carpenter made a career on and it’s great to have another artist to carry that flame to country radio.   While it may seem to be a song that on first glance is self-analyzing, the song seems to actually be from that of a daughter or friend of someone who told them the true meaning of love only to not realize that they were blindly loving someone for the wrong reasons.  Released just prior to Mother’s Day 2009, “Mama” is another strong song that finds Holly thanking her mother for never trashing her father or using Holly and her sister Hilary as pawns to get back at Hank Jr.. It’s a simple song that certainly is one of the best airing on country radio in 2009. 

First single “Keep The Change” may have only been a Top 60 hit for Holly but that doesn’t mean that this Hillary Lindsey/Luke Laird composition didn’t help gain Holly notice with radio programmers.   In fact the single worked well to introduce Holly as a woman who’s learned a thing or two along the road that is life and rather than be bitter about a soured relationship, Holly simply says “It’s a been a long time coming, I’m jumping off this reckless pity train, I’m all cashed out on your lovin’, I’ve paid my dues honey, you can keep the change.”

Written with Grammy-winning songwriter Marcus Hummon (who plays on this and other songs on the record), “Let Her Go” finds Holly singing to a father who is having a hard time letting his daughter become the woman she was destined to be.  Holly simply sings, “let her go, let her go, let her fall, let her fly, she wants to touch the world with her own hands, let her go.”   Sung over just an acoustic guitar, “Three Days In Bed” is a soft track that find Holly singing about time she spent with a man she never knew and how the feeling she got while in Paris with him and how she sometimes longs to go back to that feeling again.  This is a soft, delicate story song that recalls Sugarland’s “Stay.”
  
Co-produced by Justin Niebank, Holly Williams and longtime champion Tony Brown, “Alone” is a song that will be featured in a video (“Three Days In Bed” was as well) and could very well be an upcoming single as Holly sings her self-written track about the push and pull of falling in love or the lack there of has on the heart.   One of the truly mesmerizing tracks on this record is Holly Williams’ duet with Nashville singer/songwriter Chris Janson.  “A Love I Think Will Last” is a song that would make both Hank and Hank Jr. proud as Holly sings the simple old-school love song with Janson. 

Lyric Street Records’ Sarah Buxton co-wrote “Gone With The Morning Sun” with Nashville studio guitar ace Tom Bukovac and songwriter Greg Vorobiov and she also provides harmony vocals on the track. “Gone With The Morning Sun”’s a slow-building song about missing the one that you love that features fine band performances while “Without Jesus Here With Me” chronicles Holly’s brush with with death and it may be the most powerful track on the song.  The Williams family seems to be prone to tragic accidents but thankfully, save for Hank Sr., they have survived to share their struggle and self with us. 

“Here With Me” may or may not garner Holly Williams a smash hit on country radio but that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t find its way into the hearts of fans of strong songwriting, singing and playing.  Never does “Here With Me” feel like a scatter-shot project. Instead, unlike many Nashville albums, “Here With Me” sparkles and feels like a cohesive album, the kind of album that used to routinely come out of Nashville’s studios.  

You can support Holly Williams by purchasing this album at iTunes | Amazon.