BBC Review
Holly Williams:

In a climate where family dynasties like the Wainwrights and Guthries dominate the release schedules, it would be easy to dismiss the debut from the granddaughter of Hank Williams. This would be a grave mistake as Holly is one of the greatest talents to emerge from Nashville in years.

BBC Review

Bottom Line Review
Holly Williams: A Family Legacy Revitalized.
Jul 28 '05

The Bottom Line
A welcome debut album from a wonderful new talent.

Who knew? Those two words are what I said to myself when I had finished listening to Holly Williams? mighty fine debut album from Eb Flo/Universal South Records. Simply, the record is a piece-de-resistance of pop songcraft that most likely will be marked with the dreaded ?Americana? and/or ?Triple A? radio tag or perhaps the even more dreaded title of ?Lilith Fair singer/songwriter. I said ?who knew?? because really, who knew that the granddaughter from the most important country music songwriter of all time would put out a pop record. Have you guessed who he is yet? Even if one doesn?t like country music, they typically know who Hank Williams is. They may even know who Hank Williams, Jr. is too. Holly is Hank Jr?s twentysomething daughter.

She didn?t intend to start out as a singer. In fact Holly ran away from music but, as music inevitably does, it found its way back to Holly just long enough so she could be ?found out? by Universal South Records. The rather new label (while based in ?Music City?) isn?t just a ?country? label. The label knew that Holly Williams wasn?t a country singer but rather a great singer-songwriter in the mold of the Shawn Colvin and Carole King.

?The Ones We Never Knew? is Holly Williams debut album and it sounds as if she?s been recording for years. While primarily melancholic, the record does have ?uptempo? moments. The lyrics (all written, of course, by Williams) are of the confessional variety. They?re not unlike those of recently popular singer/songwriters Anna Nalick and Courtney Jaye.

Leading off the record is Mary Chapin Carpenter like ?Sometimes? it?s a poetic piece of music about wising to be something we?re not. It ends with a verse about Holly wishing that she could?ve been an angel in her Grandpa?s 52 Cadillac so that she could have saved him. ?Everybody?s Waiting For A Change? is a song that finds Holly waging a war with a preacher and screams out, Tori style: :

Wait, I?ll be fine/Just give me a couple of years to say my prayers/I?m alive, you should keep that mirror for yourself/you?ve got problems you?ve never saw/And I?m the bearer of them all

The lyrics presented here are true and hit home. Before we judge others we should look inside ourselves to see why we must judge others. ?Would You Still Have Fallen?? is a Evanescence like ballad that is tough to get through without a tear. It?s about suicide induced by chemicals. ?Between Your Lines? is a wonderfully real and honest Christian-themed song that should be heard. It?s one of the best ?Christian? songs I?ve ever heard.

?I?ll Only Break Your Heart? is a song that forewarns anyone who tries to ?get with? a certain woman that she?ll tear him down and leave him in the end thus she?ll only break his heart if they ?get together.? ?Man In The Making? is a confessional tale that describes how women try to help men ?become who they want to be? only to realize that he needs to do it for himself. ?Velvet Sounds? is as haunting a ballad as one will ever hear. And it?s about how a broken relationship can lead us to want to go back to that relationship, even after it ended with her cheating on him.

?The Ones We Never Knew? is a beautifully crafted record that never gets boring. Who knew that Hank Williams, Jr. would have two children who would continue the family legacy but instead of following the ?Hell Bent and Whiskey Bound? mantra of the men in her family, Holly pulls the ace from her sleeve. This is quite possilbly the best pop-rock debut from 2004. If you?re a fan of female singer-songwriters or just plain great artistry do yourself a gigantic favor and purchase this record. It?s well worth your hard earned cash.

Because you wanna know
Tracks:
Sometimes/Everybody?s Waiting For a Change/Would You Still Have Fallen?/
Take Me Down/Between Your Lines/I?ll Only Break Your Heart/Cheap Parades/Man In The Making/Memory of Me/Velvet Sounds/All As It Should Be/Nothing More

Produced by Monroe Jones for Eb Flo and Holly Williams. Released in 2004 by Universal South Records.

Recommended
Yes

Holly will be performing live this friday on The Kelly Show, Ireland's most popular!!

Critic's Choice for LA Times
CRITIC'S CHOICE
The granddaughter of the great Hank Williams and daughter of the larger-than-life Hank Jr. honors rather than simply mirrors the family tradition of staunch individualism in her debut album "The Ones We Never Knew." Her songs are musically closer to Coldplay than "Cold, Cold Heart," but even in her indie rock singer-songwriter guise, she prizes the unvarnished truth as she sees it, just like her famous daddy and granddaddy.
-- Randy Lewis

The Times
London Review

HMV Choice
UK CD Review

Sunday Mercury
UK CD Review

Berwick Advertiser Series
UK Press-Berwick

Evening Courier
UK Press-Halifax

LA Times
Holly Williams is proud of her roots, but wants to make her own name.

No Depression
Album Review

Capital News
The Ones We Never Knew

Playboy
Woman On The Verge

CMT Interview
Getting To Know Holly Williams

Roots Highway
Holly Williams Interview

Nylon Magazine
Relative Value

Venice Magazine
Holly Williams Carries on the Family Tradition

Blender Magazine
The Next Big Thing! Holly Williams

AngryCountry.com
Holly Williams Is Her Own Woman

Nashville Scene
Holly Williams gets out from under her family tradition

Barnes & Noble
Do not be deceived. She may be the daughter of Hank Jr., the half sister of Hank III, and the granddaughter of Hank Sr., but Holly Williams is plowing some far different musical acreage than her bloodlines might suggest. While certain aspects of the Hanks' music inform Holly's -- most notably the spiritual angst and the lovesick blues -- her songwriting influences run more along the lines of Randy Newman and latter-day Tom Waits, and vocally she can be compared to singers as varied as Dusty Springfield, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, and Kasey Chambers. Williams's lyrics are straightforward, intimate, and piercing in their diary-like frankness, with memorable phrases and striking images jumping out of almost every number. Co-producing with Monroe Jones, she builds upon the guitar, bass, and drum arrangements with several additions, such as the string ensemble the LoveSponge Quartet, who add Beatle-esque grandeur to several songs. On "Take Me Down," a stray, slightly distorted guitar floats in the mix, embodying the dislocation in Williams's lyrics, and on "I'll Only Break Your Heart," a deeply submerged steel guitar is an aural Siren luring a would-be lover to the pain that awaits. Over electric guitar and somber, calliope-like keyboards, "Memory of Me" -- a near-whispered, heart-wrenching confession of the damage the singer inflicted on a paramour -- becomes a spare, brittle art song, until all hell breaks loose in an orchestral crescendo at the end. On "Nothing More," discreet flugelhorn, trumpet, strings, and music box?delicate keyboard chimes render the winsome appeal for passion doubly heartbreaking. The youngest Williams's work is multilayered in texture, intent, and content, and in all those aspects wise beyond the artist's years, making this an amazing debut.

David McGee

Free Press
You'll be intrigued, if not overwhelmed, by this debut project from the
granddaughter of Hank Williams, the daughter of Hank Jr. and the half sister of Hank III. "The Ones We Never Knew" is full of lovelorn and introspective singer-songwriter moments dominated by acoustic guitar, piano and a mix of anger, vulnerability and spiritual yearning that's part Alanis Morissette and part Joni Mitchell.

Greg Crawford
Free Press staff

Venus Magazine
"Everybody's Waiting for a Change" is an expansive rock ballad packed with alternately smooth and brisk syncopated violin and cello lines and punctuated by Williams' passionate cry for some space and time to gain strength. On the mid-tempo "Would You Still Have Fallen," she wrestles with a loved one's addiction and subsequent death, lamenting in sing-speak, "I trusted you to never hurt yourself, or anyone else / You're not even here / Now we're the ones dying." On the traditional folk-country strummer, "I'll Only Break Your Heart," Williams' protagonist is the cause of heartbreak, a rolling stone who enjoys a passionate beginning, but flees from commitment. The Ones We Never Knew is filled with beautiful melodies and mournful love stories that set Holly Williams apart from her famous family, but would no doubt make them proud.

Billboard Magazine
Country pedigree notwithstanding, one is still taken aback by the depth of this captivating debut. Holly Williams is true to her genetics, displaying the straightforward honesty of her grandfather and the maverick spirit of her father. Still, this is about Holly Williams' own intriguing worldview. On the introspective "Sometimes," she sings, "I wish I was a fine wine/I wish I were a good drug/And if I were Jesus maybe I could heal all of us." On the insightful "Between Your Lines," she offers, "I don't know why you fold in the arms of reality/Why do you break with every wave in your stormy sea?" Production is understated and atmospheric, relying mostly on Williams' own guitar or piano or an artful blending of acoustic, orchestral and rock guitar ("Would You Still Have Fallen"). Her wounded vocal mesmerizes on "I'll Only Break Your Heart," and she's a keenly perceptive songwriter ("Man in the Making," "Memory of Me"). A moody, occasionally stunning debut that only gets better with repeated listenings. - RW

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