She walks into the office–crouches ever so slightly to make sure she doesn’t bump her head on the top of the door frame–with a pair of aviators creeping forward on her nose and a luminous smile. Behind her, guitarist and back-up vocalist Chris Coleman follows, explaining that Holly‘s keyboard might be a task to haul up our staircase, a glorified fire escape. We quickly settle for two acoustic guitars, but after a quick tuning and an exchange about jetlag (Williams and Coleman returned the previous night from Europe where they played shows and shot a video), we realize that we’ve settled for nothing.

Read about the gear we used to record them.

Raised on country music, the child of Hank Jr., she works her way into “Mama” and her voice sends shivers around the room; music surges in her veins. There’s a little silence after the track-the pause allows for all to compose themselves, and we jump into scanning the discs against the wall-pointing out favorites, jawing about new ones.

Her affection for all kinds of music, from gritty blues rock to Norwegian singer/songwriters, mirrors her professional pursuits. Williams is also a retail entrepreneur, opening and operating two successful stores in Nashville, one for clothing, and another, for home décor. But while pursuing fashion in her teens and small business in her 20s, music never left her. And as in these other ventures, Williams chases perfection in her songwriting and playing-repeating sections where she skips a half note, recalling her catalog and testing which songs sound best in such a bare room. She’s humble, curious, and an expert conversationalist, which we see in her songs.

Williams admits that she draws deep from her own personal well. Like “Mama,” “Three Days in Bed” is a prime example of her writing; mixing a vivid daydream with a very real desire to escape. We’re delightfully lost in the songs and conversation that, by the time she covers Gillian Welch’s “Orphan Girl,” an hour-and-a-half have passed by. We think you’ll find her record possesses the same effect.

Read about the gear we used to record her.

Check out the Country Way, Volume 2 tracklisting here.