Jess Williamson

One Liner: Nice Americana from a past Austinite
Wikipedia Genre: folk and indie
Home: Austin, but now in L.A.

Poster Position: Late Addition!
Day: Sunday
First Weekend Only

Miller Lite at 2:00.

Thoughts:  First song is pretty darned good.  Kind of a Lucinda sound.  She was born in the suburbs of Dallas, but moved to Austin to attend UT.  She started playing music while a student and released her first two albums on her own label.  That is an odd thing.  Does it just mean that you make up a label name and write it onto the CD case, as though there is an actual label involved with the album?  Or is there something more particular you have to do to officially be a "label"?

Well, she moved to LA and got a "real" label (although that also could just be somebody who said "I DECLARE A LABEL" and agreed to help her release her music and give her a cut.  maybe I need to make the Dull Jack label and profit handsomely.  Oh, wait, this is half of the Plains project with Katie Crutchfield.  I really liked that album.  I didn't review it until 2025, despite it being released in 2022, but here is what I thought at the time:

Plains - I Walked With You A Ways.  I think Katie Crutchfield's voice is just too distinctive for this to sound like anything other than a Waxahatchee album.  This is her with someone named Jess Williamson, who I am not familiar with, but they sound fantastic together.  An indie country Americana slice of pie slathered in top tier harmonies.  Sometimes it makes me think of the Highwomen, although really it just sounds like Waxahatchee.  Which is a good thing!  "Problem With It" is the top track with 6.5 million streams. [now at 8.4 million]

Huh.  Just realized this album was from 2022.  I guess I found it sooner or later.  Pretty dang sure that landscape they are driving through at the start is the road between Marfa and Alpine out in West Texas.  Beautiful patch of the world.  Also, I freaking love the banjo in that tune - just the perfect level of pluck weaving in around behind their harmonies.  Damn, I would love to be on the rim at Big Bend, drinking a cold beer and listening to Crutchfield sing right now.  Sounds like a perfect evening.  Definitely an enjoyable disc.

So, this has a lot of those same hallmarks: pretty singing, Americana pedal steel, good grooves.  I am truly enjoying this so far.  There is a trippy and gorgeous version of "True Love Will Find You in the End" among these songs, with Shakey Graves, that is a wonder.  696k streams.

Her 2014 album, Native State, is nice, but seems to have made little impact with not very many streams.  Definitely a more raw sound there, like she made it herself and then released it on a made-up-ass label.  2016's Heart Song got a smidge more traction with three bigger streamers.  The top tune of those is "Devil's Girl," the final track on the disc, with 932k streams.

Again, sounds more like she is making this in her bathroom.  But the stripped sound allows the song to become more intriguing and worrisome.  The next two discs, 2018's Cosmic Wink and 2020's Sorceress, have her finally getting on with a real label.  And she finally has a track that cracks seven figures with "Wind on Tin" at 4.7 million streams.

A much bigger, polished, fulsome sound, and I like it a lot.  Actual accompaniment and a groove going on there, and it sounds really good.

Funny thing, I was playing this in the bathroom this morning as my wife and I each showered and got ready.  I, proud of playing something that my wife would enjoy as opposed to, like new Turnstile or old Primus, asked what she thought.  She was like "eh, sounds like everything else."  Crushed me a little bit.  She's not wrong, but also, for me this is miles better than all of the pop, R&B, and EDM on the rest of the poster.  Oh well, can't win 'em all.