Holly Williams

Holly Williams could have come from anywhere. She might have started singing and writing long before she actually did. Her bloodline could have been nobody's concern. It doesn't matter.
It just so happens that she comes from Nashville, not as a transplant with a guitar and a one-way Greyhound ticket but as a native.
It's true: Hank is her grandfather, Hank Jr. her dad, Hank III her half-brother...and that doesn't matter either.
For Holly Williams is fully her own woman. Every song on her debut album, "The Ones We Never Knew", was written solely by Holly. Throughout her debut album, she stands on her own, with unique gifts that pay tribute to her lineage far more profoundly than mere imitation. "Would You Still Have Fallen" has Holly asking if she couldn't have done more to stop an addicted friend from destroying herself. "Everybody's Waiting For A Change" deals with the willingness to judge all but oneself, "I'll Only Break Your Heart", a brutally honest song dealing with commitment issues, and "Take Me Down" which explores an abusive relationship in the mind of the lover who is too dependent to walk away. Her songs conjure up images that everyone can relate to, as they also address issues that run much deeper than her years. Some of this magic descends from the spirits that haunt her family tree--but that tree is only one part of the landscape that open us up to Holly...an artist already as distinctive as any others who bear her name.
That name, in truth, played almost no role in her journey...
Holly was born on March 12, 1981 in the small town of Cullman, Alabama. Holly's mother, Becky, is a native of tiny Mer Rouge, La. In 1975 she moved to Nashville after majoring in voice and piano at LSU. Holly remembers, "My dad saw a picture of my mom hanging in a friend's office , he asked for her number but he was warned that she was much too sweet and proper to go out with him. He called her anyway, told her he was broke (this was before his fame grew) and asked if she would take him to dinner, shocking but true! She didn't know much about him but decided to go. Well he drank a little too much and started dancing on the tables. She decided he was too wild and declined his next invitation. He ended up having a terrible mountain fall 2 weeks later while hiking in Montana with a friend of his. He fell 500 feet and landed head first into a boulder, he was in critical condition and didn't want anyone to see him in such rough shape. Caring more about his well-being than his pride, my mom showed up and nursed him back health over the next 6 months, and that was it. They were married 2 years later. It's bizarre how, had he not fallen off that mountain, my sister and I most likely wouldn't be here. Funny how things work out, you know?"
Over the next few years, the pull of Hank Jr's growing fame and touring schedule were very stressful on the marriage. He was playing roughly 300 shows a year at this point, the problems led to a separation in 1984. Holly's mother moved the girls to Nashville, while Hank headed to the quieter country in Paris, TN.
Holly was familiar with her father's music, but she never had contact with her grandfather, now known to the world as Hank Williams. He was country music's most iconic and tragic figure, who generated some of the greatest songs in the history of music before dying in the backseat of a Cadillac at age 29, a victim of his excesses in 1952. The only hints that Holly would someday fall into the arms of music came when she was around eight years old. She started writing lyrics into a notebook she called Holly's Song Folder, based on melodies in her head. The lyrics were not those of a typical kid writing songs, these songs included subject matter that an adult could understand. She didn't tell many people and eventually put it aside, only to come back almost 10 years later.
Towards the end of high school, at the age of seventeen, Holly picked up a guitar which had been in a clsoet at her home. She wrote 3 songs that afternoon and never stopped.
She began booking her own gigs and bravely playing by herself at open mic nights around town. She didn't play on country music's most famous street, Broadway, instead she played at intimate songwriter venues such as 12th and Porter and the legendary Exit/In. She immersed herself in music, writing every day. She listened hungrily to everything: from the Beatles to Beethoven, Radiohead to Robert Johnson, Dylan to Miles Davis, also discovering Tom Waits, Elliott Smith and Nick Drake. She fell in love with the literary works of Jack Kerouac and Oscar Wilde, and decided to focus in on what was most important to her...making music
She began to lay the groundwork bit by bit, "I didn't want to make it off of my name, I wanted people to have no idea who I was and like my songs enough to come back and hear me play again." The local press started to take notice. She started up her website and began selling a 5 song ep at shows. She opened for everyone from John Mellencamp to Duncan Sheik, Billy Bob Thornton to Train, and went overseas with one of her favorite songwriters, Ron Sexsmith... all before she had a record deal. "I was driving around in my car, sometimes gig to gig, but I loved it like that. It made me feel like I was earning it. With Ron, I flew to the UK with my guitar, a suitcase, and a backpack full of cd's. I believe that you learn more than any person or institution could teach you by traveling. I drove to LA on a sunday for a stones show and ended up staying 4 months. I rented a place and promised myself I wouldn't leave until I had figured out the piano, so that is where my attempts at the piano began and now its my favorite instrument. I also love to hole up at the Chelsea hotel in New York when I need some writing time. It's creepy and beautiful and inspirational all at the same time, I love it."
Holly's momentum built, she ended up signing a record deal in 2004 and began work on her debut album "The Ones We Never Knew".
Holly has been fortunate enough to meet and spend time with some of her heroes. Bob Dylan and Neil Young (who plays her grandfather's old guitar) among them. Hank happened to inspire the ones who inspired Holly, some of them among the greatest artists in the history of American music. "I remember at a Dylan show in Birmingham, we were standing beside the bus talking and Bob told me that all I needed were 'goods words and a guitar', it was that simple. We were talking about the recording process and he reminded me that everybody today is trying to outdo the other, and that simplicity is always the most important factor. I think that is sometimes the hardest thing to remember in today's world, but I think it's the absolute truth.
Holly was everywhere after the release of her first album...beginning her tour in the US then moving on to Germany, Belgium, Australia, Spain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Scotland and Ireland...while also filling in radio and tv appearances such as Jimmy Kimmel. She settled back at home to begin writing for her sophomore album and took a break from touring.
Her and her sister were headed to a family funeral in Louisiana on March 15, 2006 when the unthinkable happened. They were involved in a horrible single car accident and life-flighted to Memphis. Holly suffered broken bones and head trauma, while her sister suffered many serious internal injuries, enduring 23 major surgeries as of december 2007. They spent months in Memphis and are now both back at home. Her sister, Hilary, had her final major surgery in spring 08 and will be off the wheelchair soon. Holly's plans for a sophomore album were put on hold, but by the grace of god she is alive and well. Holly signed a new record deal with MCA/ Lost highway, she is actively writing and planning an album release for fall 2008, and looking forward to doing what she loves best....making music