Out There on the Highway: An Interview with Holly Williams
It’s been a little over a year since Holly Williams released her independent debut (two albums preceded it, on Universal Nashville). The Highway is a stirring, captivating disc, about which I’ve written at length in this space before, when I claimed it was one of the finest albums of 2013.
Since it dropped, Williams has been on a whirlwind tour of promotional dates, playing over a hundred shows and opening for everyone from Jason Isbell to John Prine. No doubt, she’s won over plenty of cynics who’ve thought she was just in it to make some cash off of daddy’s (and grandaddy’s) name. Meanwhile, her songs are spot-on vignettes of true-to-life heartache, triumph, familial struggles, addiction, longing and all the other nuanced complications that swim in and out of our lives from time to time. She addresses them all with the kind of empathetic consideration these things require, never falling into the trap of the clichéd country song about [fill in the blank].
Needless to say – though it’s a rare thing in my profession, with the oodles of music sent my way throughout the year and the level of exposure to new recordings that would make anyone start to see duplicates in every band and singer-songwriter – I’ve become a fan. Williams has an eye into something, which many songwriters spend their entire careers trying to crack. Whether it’s the level of sheer exposure to music she’s had all her life, her individual intuition, or it’s just in the genes (probably some mix of all three, among other things), it’ll be interesting to see where the music takes her next.
So, on a hectic afternoon at the onset of Merlefest 2014, I met up with Williams backstage for a quick Q&A. I was struck by her presence – by which I mean how present she seemed to be in the moment. Her answers to my questions came with such speed and completeness, I wasn’t sure if they were canned or well-considered until I listened back through the tape. But that kind of quick-draw honesty is what makes her songs so haunting. As she indicates in the interview, the songs she keeps come to her almost like revelations. Thus, in songwriting as in conversation, Williams seems to trust her instincts, to trust her own voice. I suppose you’d have to when you’re working to forge your own way at the same time as continuing the legacy of your family – one of the most important family lines in modern country music, whatever that is.
Kim Ruehl: What are you working on? It’s been a year since The Highway came out. Are you still flying on that, or have you been writing some new stuff?
Holly Williams: Yeah, through August, we are. It’s about to come out in June in the U.K. for the first time. that’s always weird, how it can be released so much later [over there]. We have a whole other round of interviews and all that. I’ve got Merlefest now, Stagecoach this weekend, more shows with Jason Isbell next week, then headlining gigs through May and July. Then I’ll simmer down. My last show’s at Edmonton Folk Festival in August. Then I’ll get into writing mode and I’m hoping for a new album next May. I’m not really a fast writer and I’ve been on the road so much. I’ve done 140 shows and haven’t had time to write songs yet. I definitely need a few months to get into that space, then hopefully next spring it’ll come out.
How does that work for you? Do you gather ideas while you’re on the road, or do you just need to block out that part of your brain [and focus on performing]?
I do it through my iPhone recorder. I’ve never been the type of writer that can decide, Okay, Tuesday and Wednesday, I’m going to write some great songs. “Drinkin’” I wrote when I was washing dishes. “Waiting on June” fell in my lap while I was driving. A lot of times when I’m traveling, driving the van at night, I get a lot of ideas. I have a few ideas in my iphone – well, a lot. I have like 72 half-songs. When I get home, I can start separating out what I want to work on, what I want to go through.
How long do you keep something around? If it doesn’t work right away, will you hold onto it and work on it later?
No, I know immediately. Literally. I [know if it’s] working or not, and I’ll move on. I never have pages of lyrics in notebooks. I just throw them away if I don’t like them. I’ve never been one to go back and go searching. I try to go into it fresh.
This record, to me, was really sad and hopeful at the same time – a balance of both of those things. Do you think that’s a sweet spot for you, or is that just what happened with these songs?
As a songwriter, [my songs are] much more similar to my grandfather’s subject matter than my dad’s. I’m not at all a depressed, down person; I just love bittersweet stories. “Waiting on June” and “Gone Away from Me” are sad because they’re bittersweet, but it’s not depressing-sad like “My boyfriend dumped me and I’m miserable.” I love real stories, whether they’re happy all the way or sad all the way. There’s always a lining of happiness and sadness.
Are you still getting a lot of questions about your family, or do you feel like people are letting you be your own artist?
I’ll always get questions like “What’s your dad doing now?” or “How does it feel?” Questions like, “Is it a blessing or a curse?”, I can answer those all day. But I think by now, on the third album, people are starting to see…instead of [wondering if I’m] doing this because [my] dad’s a musician, people are seeing that I’ve been in a band for ten years. I want to do this. That’s definitely simmered down. People’s opininons have changed from looking at me as Hank’s daughter to seeing me as an artist and figuring out if they like me [based on] that or not.
But there will always be both ways – you’re not like your dad or you have to live up to your dad. Do you just block it out?
Both my dad and my grandfather were fiercely independent. That is, to me, what I’m trying to live up to. They were both independent when Nashville was telling them no and they found their own way. I’m never going to sell 70 million records like my dad or be a legend of America and the world, and country music songwriting, like my grandfather. But, if I can make good music and fans, and be inspired by the way they built their careers, which was on their own and being told no by people…that’s what I’m trying to emulate.
How is being independent different from being on Universal?
I’ve never been an artist who hates labels. I had two amazing label heads who let me do what I want. It was more [an issue of] battling with the radio, battling with these boxes of radio guys who wanted the three-minute songs. [Going independent] was very freeing, very nerve-wracking, and a lot more stress. It’s literally your own money, your own tour support, your own label. You can’t drop yourself but you also have to figure out how to pay for all this. It’s overwhelming but, at the same time, it’s worth it to be able to do whatever I want and say, Oh I feel like writing songs now, so I’ll put out another album. I ‘m not battling country radio. I’m playing on folk and Americana stations and getting to do cool shit like [Merlefest] all the time. I had a great tour with Jason Isbell and John Prine. So that part of it is nice. I’m not chasing something. I’m just making music.
And making your own decisions as far as the band…
Yeah, that’s the most stressful part about being a solo artist. Obviously I can’t keep a full band on retainer. So literally every gig…just today, one bassist had to bail out. We have three bass players, four guitar players and two drummers that we go between. My husband is in Kings of Leon, he’s splitting his schedule. The main bass player, who I love, splits with me and Amos Lee. My other bass player is with Radney Foster. So that is quite a full time job, just finding musicians to play with you all the time. I make decisions on my own, but if feels good that I did this. I’m making this.
Do you write much with your husband?
We do. We haven’t [yet] for the next record. We’ve been traveling nonstop, but we definitely will. We wrote three of the songs for this album. He’s a drummer. Now he plays guitar with the Kings and me, but he comes from a drumming standpoint. He comes from a much different tempo world than me. He inspires a different side of me coming out.
That’s an interesting approach to songwriting, starting from drums. Usually you picture a songwriter starting from a guitar or piano…
Yeah, but I feel like I’m covered with that. I need him to come up with tempo stuff, to bring a little tempo into my life.
Holly Williams’s tour dates are on her website. Photo by Amos Perrine.