Holly Williams

Holly Williams grew up right in the heart of Nashville rather than tracing the typical long road that most country performers describe when recounting their arrival in the city. Lineage placed her squarely within country royalty: Hank Williams was her grandfather, Hank Jr. her father, and Hank III her half-brother. Though she had already written a couple of songs by age eight, music held little appeal for her during childhood, when modeling instead occupied her ambitions. Her parents had separated early, yet Hank Jr. began bringing his daughter along to additional concerts once she reached her teens. That exposure prompted her, at seventeen, to pick up a guitar that happened to be in the house, and within days she was composing introspective, somewhat dark material.

Following high school graduation, she granted herself one year to test the music industry before committing to college. A focused stretch of three months in Los Angeles, spent studying piano, writing songs, and catching shows by the Rolling Stones, Elliott Smith, and Neil Finn, sharpened her direction. Her material reached Ron Sexsmith, who promptly invited her to open his European tour. By 2003 she had issued her own EP, joined Billy Bob Thornton on the road, and secured a deal with Universal South, which put out her first full-length album, Ones We Never Knew, in October 2004. The label dropped her a year later, and a serious car accident soon afterward kept her sidelined for months of recovery. She resurfaced in 2009 on Mercury with the album Here with Me, whose hit single “Keep the Change” drew strong critical notice, though she and the label parted ways once the supporting tour concluded.

Williams opened her own clothing store in 2007 and stepped away from recording for a couple of years while establishing the business. After turning thirty and marrying her guitarist, Chris Coleman, she chose to make music again entirely on her own terms. The resulting project, The Highway, appeared on the couple’s Georgiana Records imprint as a self-financed and self-released effort. Grammy-winner Charlie Peacock produced the eleven-song collection, which includes guest contributions from Jackson Browne, Jakob Dylan, Dierks Bentley, and Gwyneth Paltrow. A full year of work led to its release in early 2013.