Amanda Jo Williams: Bear Eats Me

I am always listening out for new and innovative sounds in the wild and ever-expanding world of contemporary folk and country music. Recently a friend said “you should check out Amanda Jo Williams!” “What sort of music does she play?” I replied. When I heard the term “post-punkabilly,” I knew I had to check into this person. 

Originally from Hogansville, Ga., this 30-year-old, mother of two’s career has musically taken flight from New York to California to being “voted No. 5 in the Top 10 LA Bands to Watch in 2011” by the Los Angeles Weekly. I like the Philadelphia Weekly review, which said that listening to Williams as “kind of like chewing nervously on the insides of your mouth: It seems wrong but you just can’t help it, and the pain and faint salty taste of blood is strangely satisfying.” In short, it is really weird, but you just like it and you can’t explain why.

Williams has a new CD, “Bear Eats Me,” released in June by Neurotic Yell Records. “Bear Eats Me” is, I promise, like nothing you have heard before. Williams’ voice sounds at times like a nasally little girl, banging away on her dime-store child’s guitar and junky bass drum while belting out ethereal lyrics to bare-bones instrumentation from her band. The music is rough and surreal. t gives the listener that existential feeling found in a lot of the alt-country and punk music of people like Hank Williams III, Joanna Newsome, Patti Smith and one of my favorite local singers, Lonesome Liz.

Don’t expect sweet, insipid little tunes about cute boyfriends and broken girly hearts. Williams’ often sing-song lyrics reflect the voice of dark times, strange forms of affection and ideas at the edge of rationality. For live-performance samples, check out tracks like “Bear Eats Me, “Soul in Songs” “Keep the Animals” and, my favorite, “Sick and Dying” on YouTube. If you like what you hear, ignore your better senses, grab that credit card and buy this thing! After all, if the world really does end in December, you probably won’t end up having to pay for all of it anyway!

Williams is certainly not for the country traditionalist or punk purist, but if you like a little something different, “Bear Eats Me” is for you.

Finally, I recently heard that Williams will be in Nashville on Sept. 25 and I suspect that a live show would be yet another perfect way to experience her amazing sound.

About the author: Jack Montgomery is a librarian, author and associate professor at Western Kentucky University where he handles bookings for musical acts in University Libraries, Java City coffeehouse. Jack has also been a professional musician since 1969 and performs with a celtic quartet called Watersprite. Visit him on Facebook.