Holly Williams sounds great on her second CD, titled Here With Me, where she has turned her full attention to a real country sound with pedal steel, country guitars, heartbreak songs and great upbeat honky tonk songs. This is one of the best country CDs that I have heard this year. Her emotive voice can send chills up your spine and her songs are stuff that you can really relate to. The recording quality is enticing, done in HDCD, where it really helps on this very well produced disc.

Williams' performance sounds like the classics, as in the upbeat "Let Her Go", this song tells why this gal should be let go, she'll just hurt you in the end.

"Love I Think Will Last" has some great country guitar, "finally found a love I think will last, he don't give a hoot about my past."

The CD starts out with the beautiful "He's Making A Fool Out Of You." This is a syrupy slow song that resonates with heartache.

"Mama" is a classic upbeat song about her Williams' mother, just a great tune that will stick in your memory. I love to listen to this CD to get my day off to a good start, when I'm having breakfast. I have had this disc for awhile so it is a very simple review, this disc is a keeper for me. I have not tired of it at all and I loved it from the first listen. Williams' label, Mercury Records, did not chintz on this disc, using the best studios, musicians and had it mastered by Denny Purcell's prodigy Andrew Mendolsohn at Georgetown Masters.

Williams has a way with a song and also wrote or co wrote most of this disc. Ironically she covers the hauntingly sparse "Birds" written by Neil Young, almost like Linda Ronstadt did as a last song on her self titled CD back in the early seventies.

Saving this tidbit for last, in case you do not know, Holly is the granddaughter of Hank Williams Sr. and the daughter of Hank Williams Jr. The music stands on it's own, but I did want you to know this gal has some "real" country blood running thru her veins.

Enjoy!!