Holly Williams is the epitome of country royalty. Her grandfather established the family name with classic songs like “Hey Good Lookin,’” and her father left his mark on country music forever with the help of a devilish, bad boy image, and undeniable outlaw spirit. With the recent release of her sophomore album, Here With Me, singer/songwriter Holly Williams proves she’s worthy of her family’s notoriety. Not only is Here With Me packed full of potential singles, but it’s authentic, believable, and flawless. The music on Here showcases the full scope of Holly’s talent—both as a singer and a songwriter—as she belts out songs about “Mama” to honky tonkin’ boot stompers like the infectious, “A Love I Think Will Last.” Most impressively, there’s a commanding authority in her storytelling, and life in her lyrics that stretches far beyond her 28 years.

There isn’t a song on Here With Me that doesn’t deserve a moment in the spotlight, but the record shines brightest when Williams sings of heartbreak and hardships. Bittersweet undertones come through on tracks like, “He’s Makin’ A Fool Out Of You,” “Three Days In Bed,” and “Alone.” The rawness that resonates in her vocals conveys an honesty that’s been sadly absent from the sugary country-pop of late, and the appropriate simplicity in her lyrics make the whole thing seem effortless. Other standouts on Here include, “Keep The Change,” and “Without Jesus Here With Me” from which the records title was spawned.

After listening to Here With Me, it becomes abundantly clear that singer/songwriter Holly Williams has country in her blood. Here is the perfect combination of raw emotion, illustrative lyrics, and beautifully composed melodies, creating one of the best female vocal performances country music has heard in years. Where other artists prove to be predictable, Williams keeps listeners entertained cranking out song after song of quality country with a contemporary edge and loads of credibility.

Here With Me would be bet served on a warm summer night, under the light of a full moon, with a side of red wine. It’s a record you can laugh with, cry to, and even learn a few life lessons from along the way. Here With Me should fit nicely into a library filled with soulful singer/songwriters or country sweethearts like Jennifer Nettles, Emily West, or Katie Armiger. Whether or not you’re a country fan, however, Holly Williams and her latest release are definitely worth investigating. You may just fall in love.

When it comes to a band like Sway, one knows immediately to expect: comfortably safe country pop that countless other lesser and well-known acts have explored to the nth degree time and again. Lead singer and guitarist Gina Quartaro kicks off the album with the clichéd “Cowgirl Scene” that trots out all the old standards such as do-si-dos, common folk, and hitting the local bars. In the meantime, lead guitarist Perry Martin throws down a lead riff that sounds like it’s been played out in a million songs before this one. Comfy like an old pair of shoes but hardly original. If that’s not enough, the worn-out subject matter continues on the father to son life lessons explored in the title track, and other rote lyrical ideas such as thunderstorms, cold winds blowing, and crying in one’s sleep are spilt like milk on “I’m Over You.” Sway don’t have much of anything “new” to offer, from their unimaginative name to their musical and lyrical ideas. It’s safe to say you’ve heard at least ten other artists of varying quality do this exact same thing. If you need to hear another one do it all again, this may be your meal ticket. (self-released)

Sway home page

Following A Different Story, last year’s self-released comeback after an extended absence, The Show Is on the Road represents Paleface’s continued progress on the road to recovery. Once one of the prime movers in New York’s fabled Anti-folk scene, his journey hasn’t been easy; a decade ago, he collapsed and nearly died after being stricken by an onslaught of alcohol abuse, pneumonia and hepatitis. Those problems now well behind him, he opts for a rambling, ramshackle approach that’s both unhinged and unembellished, eschewing more sophisticated arrangements for a low-key, down home sound. The title track starts things off on a note of upbeat optimism, and as the album saunters on, songs such as “Try to Hold Your Own,” “Holy Holy” and “Pondering the Night Sky” maintain that jaunty lilt established early on. Yet, despite the nonchalant atmosphere and the DIY aesthetic, nods to the past are inevitable. “New York, New York” bids a wistful farewell to Manhattan, where he once resided before heading to a new life in North Carolina, while “Raise the Glass” offers salutations to past excess. No matter though; with the show on the road, Paleface procures a rollicking return.

Paleface website“

It’s no secret that most of the music coming out of Nashville’s Music Row is based on formula - a lot of the same songwriters and producers are making the records and making it difficult to distinguish one artist from another. You might see Brad Paisley or Kenny Chesney or Billy Currington on TV or walking down the street in Nashville and immediately know who they are, but that doesn’t mean the casual fan can pick their voice out on the radio. That’s because Nashville has auto-tuned everyone into sounding the same - the same vocal tone, same twang, and in most cases, the same freaking songs. Dierks Bentley falls into that category, and on his latest, and fourth album, Feel That Fire, Bentley has co-written a bland bunch of songs that he seems to almost be going through the motions with. Tracks like “Sideways” and “Little Heartwrecker” will make you tap your feet but you’re not going to remember them five minutes afterward. A pretty duet with Patty Griffin, “Beautiful World,” almost saves the album, but while the likes of “I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes” and “I Can’t Forget Her” are pleasant enough, there are literally thousands of better songs in this formulaic genre alone. Country music surely isn’t going to make any new fans this way. (LABEL: Capitol Nashville)

Dierks Bentley MySpace Page

Even those with half an ear wouldn’t mistake the Gourds for anything but a Texas band. From their sound, which is tough to describe since it has so many different elements (alt-country with creole and Tex-Mex seasoning? Hillbilly soul?), to their songwriting (with topics that run the typical Gourds subject matter weirdness: road trips, love, a guy named Thurman, unrequited love, fossils, love, Shreveport, women), this Austin-based five-piece is definitely of a place. Haymaker!, their ninth studio album, boasts more of a country sound than their last two albums, 2007’s Noble Creatures and 2006’s Heavy Ornamentals, but with the Gourds, country gets rightfully twisted to include soul, rock, swamp boogie, and a lot of the usual elements that listeners have come to expect from a Gourds album. Haymaker! thankfully is also a lot less ballad-heavy than Noble Creatures, so it naturally has a more playful feel. And while there’s nothing here as immediately stand-out as their cover of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” – c’mon, that was 12 years ago, man! – there’s enough here for Haymaker! to be a contender for the best Gourds album yet. (Yep Roc 2009)

The Gourds MySpace page

Country singers can always release a gospel album when things are going badly. And many times, that’s how the album works - badly. There are exceptions of course, but Ronnie Milsap’s Then Sings My Soul is not one of them. It’s too bad, since the singer’s 2006 autobiographical album My Life was considered something of a comeback. All the usual suspects are present on Soul, including “I’ll Fly Away,” “Amazing Grace,” “Rock of Ages” and “The Old Rugged Cross,” but they’re robbed of any soul by the slick production and Milsap’s uninspiring vocals. One doesn’t want to be too hard on the man, and some might ask, “what did you expect from the guy behind ’Smokey Mountain Rain’ and ’(There’s) No Getting Over Me.’? ” It might have been more surprising if Milsap had actually found something new in the old classics. Here’s hoping this can be chalked up as a misstep, and Milsap can get back on track. (EMI CMG 2009)

Here’s something to make you feel older than dirt, Steve Earle fans: Not only is Earle’s son a grown-up singer/songwriter in his own right, but he’s releasing his second album on March 3 – and he already sounds as weary and worldly wise as his old man did on 1996’s I Feel Alright. But don’t look to the elder Earle’s music for points of reference when listening to Midnight at the Movies - like his old man, Justin Townes Earle doesn’t boast a classically strong set of pipes, but his voice is clearer and his songs generally better-kempt than his dad’s, wobbling just a little more gracefully down the line between rock and country. What the album sounds a lot like, actually, is the Replacements’ All Shook Down, only with slightly more consistent songs – a similarity brought into relief by Earle’s sleepy cover of the ‘Mats classic “Can’t Hardly Wait.” Earle also kinda-sorta covers the standard “John Henry” here, but for the most part, these songs are self-penned, and they stand up to the best that AAA/alt-country has to offer. Never mind the sophomore jinx – Earle sounds like he’s been at this forever, and might have enough stories in his guitar case to keep on rolling for a lifetime. If you’re a fan of the genre, Midnight at the Movies is not to be missed. (Bloodshot 2009)

Justin Townes Earle MySpace page

Dion’s Heroes: Giants of Early Guitar Rock is played and presented with such joy, authenticity and enthusiasm that it is one of the better cover records released since it became trendy some 10 years ago. Much like Brian Setzer’s Rockabilly Riot Volume 1: A Tribute to Sun Records, this is a love letter to those who mapped out the first avenues of rock & roll. The difference between the two, other than the era covered, is that Dion captures the vibe and adds his own touches to each track while Setzer tried to reproduce each song as originally recorded. The material covered by Setzer is also not necessarily automatically recognizable as the material covered on Heroes. “Summertime Blues,” “Come On, Let’s Go,” “Bye Bye Love” and “Jailhouse Rock” are songs that are a part of our collective musical consciousness. Dion’s voice has great character and moxie, which perfectly suits these tracks. His band, which includes Robert “Crow” Richardson on guitar, plays these tracks with an energy and a reverence that they deserve. Dion has the credibility to cover songs like “Runaway” and “Rave On” because he was a contemporary of these folks, jammed with Buddy Holly and toured with many of these artists. The guitar work is really excellent here. No, there is no Van Halen tapping and shredding, but there are great solos with character and zip. Great songs, great guitar, what more can you ask? A bonus DVD of Dion relating stories about these songs, the original artists who recorded them and impromptu versions of a couple of them played in a studio with Richardson is also a treat. One-half star is removed from the total in that the only track that doesn’t measure up to the others is a cover of his own masterpiece, “The Wanderer.” (Saguard Road Records)

Dion’s Website

One listen to the first track on David Lykin’s new disc and you get the dreaded feeling that this dude is going to blast his big message at you for the rest of the time it takes to hear the other tunes. “Houston” is big, with the sort of corny all-American flag waving mentality underneath that you can’t quite shake. And Lykins’ voice is booming, making sure you hear it and the messages it has to deliver. “Greetings from the Riviera” is wordy to the point of being distracting – I get that Lykins is going for the singer-songwriter thing here, but his story on this song just isn’t that compelling. So Lykins has stories to tell in his acoustic/rustic/country sort of way, but unfortunately his tales and tunes all start sounding the same fast. “Good News” could be “I’ve Been in Love Before” and vice-versa. “Here’s Your Love Song” is a pretty good classic country weeper and “Day After Valentine” is classic country corn. Undoubtedly Lykins has a good number of fans already. After all, there’s always an audience for this sort of thing. In that essence, Blurry White Guy should be a rousing success. (self-released)

David Lykin MySpace page

George Strait has one of the purest, most recognizable voices in a genre not known for that type of clarity, and he’s one of those singers who likely doesn’t need much help (read: pitch correction) in the studio. If you’re a fan of Strait or of country music in general, you’re going to love this guy’s straight-ahead, twangy approach to classic Christmas fare, aptly titled Classic Christmas. For the rest of you, you may be left with the feeling that these takes are a bit vanilla and even a tad mundane. As holiday albums go, though, you sure could do a lot worse. After all, Mr. Strait is a living legend at this point, and his voice alone is reason to pick this one up. Standout tracks are “We Three Kings” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” (MCA Nashville)

George Strait MySpace Page

On the cover of her new CD, Laura Roppe is pictured standing in the middle of a dirt road in a little black getup, and heels posing rather defiantly. Yes, it’s another bid on the indie circuit for some soundalike Hollywood Nashville pop. And it’s every bit as mediocre as you might imagine. Roppe’s main problem is that she doesn’t have the voice to carry strong pop country tunes. It sounds like she’s really forcing it on the title track, almost missing her marks in a number of places. It gets a little worse on “Mama Needs a Girls Night Out” where her voice starts sounding a bit more Kermit the Frog and less country diva. She tries to bring the sass to “Ooh La La,” and sounds like she’s painting by numbers than putting anything honest into her performance. And by the time “Crazy about You and Me” arrives, you wish she’d just sing it straight without the affected twang in her throat. This may have been a nice vanity project for Roppe, but for the general listener, there’s far better stuff out there to be heard. (self-released)

Laura Roppe MySpace

Hoo boy. From the silly cover art down to the synth bass lines and programmed drums, everything about this EP by Rhett May just screams embarrassing. Definitely one of those discs that should have just been given out to friends and left at that, but undoubtedly there was someone out there who told Rhett to go for broke and let everyone else hear this stuff. Well, suffice it to say it’s a complete train wreck, with some of the worst canned, DIY production to be heard in a long time. Is this guy country? Is he pop? Who knows? It’s just tough to listen to a song like “There’s a Little White Powder” or “African Queen” and not think you could be listening to something – anything – better than this. On the third track, May asks “Have Your Arms Been Missing Me?” I can’t answer that question, but I can say that my ears won’t be missing the auto-chord settings on Rhett’s old clunky keyboard. (self-released)

Rhett May MySpace page

Every once in a while, some country artist and/or songwriter takes a chance on a song that doesn’t sound like everything else they release. Jimmy Wayne’s “Do You Believe Me Now?” the title track to his latest, and second album, is that song – essentially a great pop song sung with a twangy vocal and a lyrical theme that is left of center (guy sees the way other guy is looking at his girl, and fast-forwards to when he is the odd man out and the other guy has his girl now). Well, that, and the track is as catchy as anything you’ll ever hear. Read his bio, and you won’t help but feel for the guy, who once saw his stepfather shoot (and paralyze) his stepbrother’s wife and then attempt to kill Jimmy too when he was 15. But mostly this is a new country artist (who co-writes most of his material) armed with a solid album of hooky songs that reflect the variety of music his foster parents listened to – Hall & Oates, Alan Jackson, Iron Maiden among them. Other standouts are the breezy “I Will” and sultry semi-ballad “One on One.” With the title track recently hitting #1 on the country charts, the sky is the limit for Jimmy Wayne, and gives hope to some of the lesser-known but promising songwriting talent on Music Row. (Valory Music Co.)

Jimmy Wayne MySpace Page

This electric/acoustic bluegrass boogie band does an amicable job of throwing up some dust on their new nine-track release. “Sleepwalking Killer” gets things off to a good start with lickety-split rhythms, plenty of twanging guitars and a banjo thrown in for good measure. “Same Old” follows almost the same exact formula, except the acoustic guitars take front and center, and the drum sticks are given away for brushes, but the vibe is completely the same. “Barbed Wire Bed” finally steeps itself into rustic bluegrass Americana and ditches the electric guitars altogether, showing off the pure, raw talents of this group. Other tracks that try for the more pop country format, like “Dollar Bill Blues” don’t suit the band as well. Ditto that for the corny clichéd lyrical pursuits of “Drink You off My Mind.” And, well, the closing “Rocktopus” really doesn’t fit at all with the rest of the album. Too bad, because the first half of this disc really is good. When these guys stray from the bluegrass trappings, though, they lose it all over the place.(self-released)

Cosmic American Derelicts MySpace page

“It was arrogant to think from the start / You were the only backyard Dylan / With a folksinger’s heart” sings Two Cow Garage’s Micah Schnabel in “Folksinger’s Heart.” And while even an aged Bob Dylan has more vocal heft than Schnabel, who consistently sports a rasp that sounds like he’s been yelling at the top of his lungs for hours on end, he and his Columbus, Ohio-based band do tend to write some compelling songs. The bare-bones heartland rock that marks the bulk of Speaking in Cursive, the band’s fourth album, even veers towards E Street Band territory via crashing guitar chords and Andy Schell’s tinkling keyboards on “Glass City,” one of bassist Shane Sweeney’s several turns at the lead vocal slot. Sweeney’s vocals are at their best during the quieter moments of “The Heart and the Crown,” where he again echoes Springsteen, this time in his folksy acoustic guise. This kind of vocal restraint is in short supply, but Speaking in Cursive is saved by brilliant contemplative moments like the disillusioned “Not Your Friends” and the vivid character sketch “Sadie Mae.” (Suburban Home 2008)

Two Cow Garage MySpace page