Jess Williamson - Heart Song (Brutal Honest) 2016
8
Jess Williamson’s voice is mesmerizing, haunting and strange. Heart Song, her second LP, is beautiful and elegiac in the way that a sunset is wondrous before it gives way to a deep blackness.
While three tracks stretch well beyond the six minute mark, the interest and personality in Williamson’s vocals prevent any monotony from arising amidst the simple instrumental backdrops. Her cadences break through the delicate, finger picked canvas and unveil poetry that is unexpectedly darker than the folk-influenced, country facade. Songwriting is the heart of the record, after all. “And when you need her the most, that’s when she’ll leave you with the memory of her smile…” She inflicts character into her words at the exact time necessary for the lyric to be heartbreaking and to deeply resonate within.
Some records are meant to be listened to in the black of night or alone in nature – this is one of those such collections of melancholic serenity. Heart Song is a stunning, sometimes somber, landscape that echoes the vast, shifting horizons of Williamson’s native Texas.