Hank Williams' Grandkid Jumps Outside Country Box

Second album has a twang, but don't typecast her: She likes Radiohead, too
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 12, 2009 12:47 PM CDT
Hank Williams' Grandkid Jumps Outside Country Box
Hank Williams Jr. and his daughter Holly Williams arrive at the 2006 CMT Music Awards at the Curb Event Center at Belmont University, April 10, 2006 in Nashville, Tennessee.   (Getty Images)

Holly Williams is a descendant of country legends—Hank Williams was her grandfather, Hank Williams Jr. her father—but she’s no “cowboy hat-wearing country girl,” she tells the Telegraph. The singer and boutique owner, who admires artists from Dolly Parton to Radiohead, releases her second album Tuesday, and she says she hopes Nashville is ready to see that “you can do things outside the box and still be successful.”

“I don’t want to reject country music because obviously that is what made my family,” Williams says. “If I say I don’t listen to country radio, I sound like I am being snobbish.” Nonetheless, her music has clear country influences, and she is excited by young Nashville artists like Jack White and Kings of Leon who are causing “country people to open their eyes a little more.” (More Jay-ZTV stories.)

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