biography
Rachel Williams likes her music with generous helpings of straight-ahead slow-burners, big rock hooks and Motor City-bred rhythm and blues. And it just so happens that the Michigan-born singer has the pipes to straddle the genre-bending territory between southern-fried twang, heartbroken balladry and chugging, bottom-heavy grooves.
Williams’ solid musical foundation was laid early on in life. A native of Belleville, Mi., she grew up within shouting distance of the birthplace of the Motown sound. From the tender age of two—when her grandfather took her to her first Judds concert—Williams cultivated a devotion to Wynonna. Watching countless Wynonna television appearances and reading every interview she could get her hands on, the aspiring singer admired the personal strength and career longevity that she herself would later strive for as an artist.
Williams had two significant things going for her from the start—a strikingly full-bodied voice and the conviction that she was born to be a performer. Her passion and raw talent only became clearer as she progressed from herding family members into the living room to witness her hairbrush/microphone mini-concerts to sweeping talent shows and choir competitions.
The budding siren conquered the club and fair circuits of Michigan and surrounding states in her teens, handling the bulk of booking responsibilities herself, but she finally gained national exposure as a top 15 finalist on the USA Network’s Nashville Star 2. Working as a waitress at the time the show aired, she soon became known to two million viewers as “that Cracker Barrel girl.”
“We would have tons of people call Cracker Barrel and come in to see me, and I’d be covered in coffee from waitressing,” she laughs. “I can’t even tell you how many menus I signed.”
Following Nashville Star, media attention and a string of noteworthy opening slots (including Williams’ crowning achievement—a long-coveted show date with Wynonna) she decided it was time to up the ante and leave the restaurant job behind. With the subsequent recording of her full-length debut—2004’s First Day of the Truth—the singer solidified her heady mélange of country, R&B and rock.
Williams’ focus on songwriting has begun to pay off in a big way as she’s logged co-writes with a host of well-respected writers, from Dave Berg, who scored number hits with Reba McEntire (“Somebody”) and Rodney Atkins (“If You’re Going Through Hell”), to Stewart Harris, who topped the charts with the Wynonna Judd smash “No One Else On Earth” and Travis Tritt’s “Can I Trust You With My Heart,” and Lisa Carver, who has had cuts with Sugarland, Tim McGraw, Reba McEntire, and Julie Roberts.. Many industry insiders are starting to take notice of Rachel’s songwriting talents as material for other country music stars as well, as several of her songs are currently being held for numerous major country recording artists.
In 2007 alone, this petite brunette can credit a pair of showcases, a handful of performances in the prestigious late night songwriters’ rounds at Nashville’s famed Bluebird Café—including her hosting debut—and a booth at Fan Fair—an important long-running feature of the CMA Music Festival—for having raised Williams’ profile in Music City. Her latest album, Lonely At The Bottom, promises to turn even more heads her way.
“I look at Bonnie Raitt, Reba McEntire and Wynonna, who’ve been here for decades—they’re not just plaques on the wall in the Hall of Fame. They’re still doing their thing and getting loads of respect. It would be so easy to become what the labels are looking for at this moment just to have a hit single on the radio, but those things have never been the end-all goal for me. I’m not going to apologize for my music. The way that we’re doing things might take a hell-of-a-lot longer, but in the end it’s going to last.”
