The Nashville-based singer-songwriter’s 2023 EP is a powerfully vulnerable triumph.
The Nashville-based singer-songwriter’s 2023 EP is a powerfully vulnerable triumph.
Julie Williams EP artwork.
Julie Williams grew up in Tampa, FL and moved to Nashville after graduating from Duke University, where she says she found her voice. She’s been busily making a name for herself since moving to Music City, being inducted into the CMT Next Women of Country Class of 2023 in January 2023, joining the likes of Kacey Musgraves, Margo Price, Brittney Spencer, and Lainey Wilson. Williams released her self-titled EP in June 2023, and this little album holds some of the most piercingly beautiful and hard-hitting songs I’ve heard this year.
There is so much to be said about the six songs on Julie Williams. Her sweet vocals coupled with raw emotive lyrics strike a deep chord. Legions of Americana fans are drawn to songwriters who write with honesty and vulnerability. Williams hits that mark firmly, and practically blows a hole through it.
As a daughter of a Black father and a white mother, Williams wasn’t sure she wanted to be a country singer because of its association with the white boys in her high school who often hung Confederate flags from their pickup trucks. Thank goodness she decided to push forward into this genre that has so much to gain from her voice and her songs, which are sheer fountains of truth and empathy.
This EP is engaging and beautiful in every sense of the word, with masterful lyrics and gorgeous vocals. It draws you in with the hook-laden song “Sugar Coat,” the most poppy on the record. But the full extent of Williams’ lyrical gifts start to show with the second song.
“Southern Curls” is perfectly constructed, a song for the ages. It starts sweetly with a little girl's first day at school. Next we see her years later, excited to be growing into a woman. The chorus begins with “Not all Southern girls are met with open doors,” and provides a glimpse into the ongoing struggles faced by BIPOC women.
The bridge ends on a supremely inspiring note: “I’ve had to fight to love myself / Sometimes, it feels like I can’t breathe / I fight so no one has to feel that anymore.” That lyric, and the verse and chorus that follow, lift listeners up, and I imagine it as the declaration she made to herself when she finally decided to join and influence the genre that she saw Confederate flag–wielding high schoolers enjoying.
Julie Williams. Photo courtesy of the artist.
The next track, “Big Blue House,” co-written by Brittney Spencer of The Highwomen, goes even deeper into the subject of racism, taking a searingly honest look through a 6-year-old’s eyes.
While it’s not that uncommon for a song to give me goosebumps, this a rare one that brought me to tears, even on the fourth listen. It’s the use of playful childhood imagery, with the little girl thinking there must be big bears, monsters, spiders, witches, and vampires behind the big blue house where her dad doesn’t want her to go.
There is such a powerful contrast between these perceived dangers—the scariest things a 6-year-old’s imagination could conjure, which adults would consider ridiculous—and the sinister reality, which is that a human living in that big blue house could hurt her because of the color of her skin. The idea of a child trying to comprehend that horrible truth, juxtaposed against the fragility of youth, is why this stellar song is so necessary and important.
The other songs on the album further showcase Williams’ strong songcraft; “The Prince” is an eye-opening song that gave me a deeper understanding of difficulties that women can face. “Wrong Mr. Wright” and “Left You for Her” are very solid as well. I can’t wait to watch her career grow and listen to the songs that are to come. She’s truly a great talent, and I feel very lucky to have come across her work.
Artist WebsiteABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jacson Miller. Photo courtesy of the author.
Jacson Miller is a huge fan of great Americana music and the songwriters who create it. He is a passionate supporter of equity in education and youth development as a Board Member of the nonprofit ‘Search Institute’. A long-time resident of Minneapolis, he grew up in southern Indiana, has a Business degree from Purdue University, an MBA from Duke University, and loves being a dad, playing guitar, and songwriting.