Latest CD releases reviewed

HOLLY WILLIAMS

Here With Me Mercury ***

God, momma and sex. Any country music album that contains all three in good measure stands a fair to good chance of making the grade. Add in the fact that Holly Williams is a genuine Nashville blueblood – the daughter of Hank Williams Jnr and granddaughter of the great man – and those odds get a neat injection. But the real reason Williams is worth hearing is because she is actually very good. This is her second album; her first in 2003 was well-received but then a major car accident intervened. Here With Me has songs about God, Williams's stoical mother and three nights of passion in Paris, but it is also urbane, honest, expressive and very well played and sung. This is contemporary country music that does its best to avoid saccharine moments, though not always successfully. www.hollywilliams. com JOE BREEN