Zane Williams - Overnight Success (2013)

At the risk of jinxing his 2013 studio album with an ambitious title, Overnight Success is actually good enough to bump Zane Williams into superstardom. Where his preceding album, The Right Place, balanced classic honky-tonk with Texas twang-rock, the opening title track here leans harder on the latter. But it’s the clever lyrics sung from a lifer’s point of view that reveal that there’s really no such thing as an overnight success when it comes to playing rootsy country-rock. It’s almost as if Williams ran with the famous Dylan line ”Strap yourself to the tree with roots—you ain’t goin’ nowhere.” The following “Sure Felt Like Goodbye” contrasts the previous barroom swagger with a melodic love song trimmed with weepy fiddles, slide guitar, and lovelorn lyrics that at times recall Whiskeytown-era Ryan Adams. Similarly, “On a Good Day” reveals that Williams is in his best element when singing bittersweet love songs. “When You've Got a Woman” interestingly blends '90s new traditional country with the kind of alt-twang championed in bygone issues of No Depression magazine.