Creede Williams

Ever driven across country on Highway 40 as it melts into I-10 and finally blooms as the 101? It begins as a barren, beautiful strip of asphalt, especially in mid-May as school is letting out. Now imagine what the AM radio would sound like if Van Morrison, Michael Stipe and James Taylor took a road trip from Oklahoma to the Hollywood Hills and fought over what station to listen.

The debut release from Creede Williams features the kind of music you would expect from a guy who shilled cars in a prison town, pitched scripts at a Los Angeles Talent agency, and practiced law in Amarillo. Now that he is singing stories from stages across the country, people are finally starting to listen.

The independent debut release from Williams is a great singer/songwriter album littered with insightful lyrics, homespun intimacy and the sly wit you might find on a mix tape your older sister brought home from college. SOMETHING BORROWED is produced by Cary Pierce (Jackopierce, Graham Colton Band, Jack Ingram) and features band members from Vertical Horizon, Jackopierce, The Doobie Brothers and Thicke.

A classics major with a Juris Doctor from the University of Oklahoma, Williams came up with a lot of the album while making his way from graduation to his first job in Los Angeles, I was packing up to make the 21-hour drive out West and started trying to come up with my road trip music. This got me thinking about the irony of how road trip music rarely plays to the highway anymore.

So the idea struck me that I would try to devise a way to pick cds that represented the towns and states I would drive through. Of course, it was such a stupid idea that I had to take it to the next level- writing a short story at each stop along the way based on the people or things I ran into.

When asked about goals, Williams responded, Ultimately, my goal is to write songs that might actually fit in on that road trip mix tape of my dreams. Music appreciation, for me at least, is born in the car and learns to walk in the living room. SOMETHING BORROWED is a warm introduction to an artist who is defining what is real versus what just feels like it.