Rachel Williams’ music truly is music with no boundaries that just about everyone can identify with.  At its core are all the elements of country but this girl’s practically created a genre of her own.  Merge Nashville with Motown, mixing in a bit of edgy pop-rock and you begin to get an idea of her captivating sound.  Originally from just outside Detroit, Michigan, Rachel Williams is proving herself to be a powerhouse force to be reckoned with.  With the release of her latest CD, Lovers & Liars, Rachel is securing her rightful place in the music business as both an artist and a songwriter.  A finalist on USA Network’s “Nashville Star 2”, Rachel has released two full-length CD’s as well as two EP’s since, all available on iTunes.  She has shared the stage with the likes of Wynonna, Trace Adkins, Jason Aldean, Clay Walker, Ronnie Milsap, Jo Dee Messina, Jimmy Wayne, and countless others!  Rachel has also hosted her own booth as well as been a featured performer the past 4 years at CMA Music Festival in Nashville.  Country Weekly, Maverick, UnRated, and Music Row magazines all sing her praises and she was named by LimeWire in their “Top 10 to Watch in 2010,” as well as a spotlighted new artist on ClearChannel.com. 

When not on the road touring, Rachel is an active performer, songwriter, and demo singer in Nashville.  Regularly hosting rounds and performing at the legendary Bluebird Café as well as rocking out shows at 3^rd & Lindsley, 12^th & Porter, and other clubs and also writing with some of the biggest #1 hit writers in town, including Rachel Proctor, Angela Kaset, Mark Irwin, Dave Berg, Stewart Harris, Lisa Carver, Karen Staley, Mark Narmore, and many more. 

DIGGING A LITTLE DEEPER:

Williams’ solid musical foundation was laid early on in life. A native of Belleville, Mich., she grew up within shouting distance of the birthplace of the Motown sound. From the tender age of two, when her grandfather took her to her first Judds concert, Williams cultivated a devotion to Wynonna. Watching countless Wynonna television appearances and reading every interview she could get her hands on, the aspiring singer admired the personal strength and career longevity that she herself would later strive for as an artist.

  “At five years old I told everybody I was going to be the next Wynonna,” she recalls amusedly. “My mom would always ask if she could sing with me, and I would say, ‘No, I don’t need a Naomi.’”Williams had two significant things going for her from the start—a strikingly full-bodied voice and the conviction that she was born to be a performer. Her passion and raw talent only became clearer as she progressed from herding family members into the living room to witness her hairbrush/microphone mini-concerts to sweeping talent contests and choir competitions.

The budding siren conquered the club and fair circuits of Michigan and surrounding states in her teens, handling the bulk of booking responsibilities herself, but she finally gained national exposure on the USA Network’s Nashville Star 2. Working as a waitress at the time the show aired, she soon became known to two million viewers as “that Cracker Barrel girl.”

Shortly after, Rachel relocated to Nashville and has never looked back.  And the fact that she's in her early 20's and is already a seasoned writer, vocalist, producer, and entertainer just shows that this girl's really on to something.

“I look at people like my idols, Bob Seger, Wynonna, Bonnie Raitt, and I see that after all this time, they are still as amazing as they ever were.  They stayed true to themselves and decades later, they still rock better than any concert I've ever seen!  That’s the kind of career I want.  It’s never been about one hit song or a big paycheck, I want to be doing this until they’ve got to put me in a nursing home.  And even then, I’ll probably still perform every Bingo night.”