Florida native Julie Williams’s new EP Tennessee Moon is a gorgeous set of songs with a big heart.
As part of the inspirational collective known as the Black Opry, Williams has been building a name for herself, playing shows and getting support through this admirable organisation who are doing fantastic work to challenge inequality and offer opportunities for black artists to blossom in the country/Americana space. She has also performed and spoken as part of a campaign called Green Room Conversations to support women who have been sexually harassed, showing her quest for social justice runs deep.
The central appeal of this EP is Williams’s delicate and beautiful voice, her singing style inspired by her childhood love of tragic singer Eva Cassidy. Many of the songs on the record are co-written with Melody Walker who Julie met at Song Suffragettes in Nashville and who has also worked with Sierra Ferrell and Molly Tuttle. Title track ‘tennessee moon’ was inspired by the end of a relationship, wistfully looking back on how things faded away, coming to a new understanding of herself.
‘dirt’ is another quiet stunner, a rich acoustic song about trying to find the light and move forward with her life.
‘reckless road’ is a great title and lovely lament for her lost love. This one sounds like it would be perfect on the Dawson’s Creek soundtrack (these kind of songs are total catnip to a 90s kid like me). You hope there’s a place for a song and singer as softly enticing and sensitive sounding as this.
Another interesting turn is the autobiographical song ‘just friends?’ exploring her queer identity, by looking back at an intense friendship she had in her youth and wondering what could have been. Here is an artist unafraid to write about a deeply personal and perhaps even painful past, yet she remains optimistic and hopeful sounding celebrating the joy of the relationship then, contemplating how things would be if they met now. Intriguing that while this one uses a quiet banjo it sounds almost closer to indie rock, lightly echoing a Phoebe Bridgers style.
The final track is a version of a previous single, ‘southern curls’ newly recorded in this ‘moonlight’ version. Here is the story of her desperately trying to fit into stereotypes of what a ‘southern girl’ is. She sings of arriving in Nashville, singing to a crowd of ‘blue eyes’ who give her little back. Still she doesn’t end up bitter or even angry, instead turning her pain inward to write her own song and find her way through.
Vulnerable, searching, engaging ‘Tennessee Moon’ is the just the beginning for Julie Williams, a brief offering from an artist who is stepping out of the moon’s shadow and into the light she’s found for herself.
Highway Queens 
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