Amanda Jo Williams

Hailing from Hogansville, GA, Amanda Jo Williams returns fully charged with foot-stomping jubilance on her sophomore solo release, The Bear Eats Me. Williams' offbeat singing style is uninhibited and varied; she uses her lively, clipped delivery to mimic the staccato notes of her strings (or conversely, they're made to match hers) and, at other times, stretches out a syllable to clearly accentuate her hillbilly drawl. Consequently, her childlike voice, which has been compared to that of Joanna Newsom's, is made even more eccentric; it's capable of appearing affectatious to some and all the more fascinating to others. Much like Newsom as well, Williams' narratives fall under the freak-folk umbrella ― Native American and hippie cultures collide in stories about bears, mountains and marriage proposals. Her sound (a pastiche of genres) combines the twangy rowdiness of country rockabilly with rootsy, weird Americana, along with experimental meanderings of psychedelic punk. It's all raucous and wonderfully off-kilter.