This is a record of earnest, careful, high-quality singer-songwriter country music. Hayward Williams has a solid grasp of a range of country styles. The slow, melodic but hook-free opener gives way to a moderate paced fiddle-and-jangly-guitar number. The third track does slow and melodic, but with a nice hook for a chorus. "Careful, Please" is a nice bluesy ambler. It's also worth mentioning that he exhibits a nice range of tone in his singing. The first song gave me a slight twinge of fear that he might just want to be a young and thoughtful Midwestern Springsteen of the "Ghost of Tom Joad" (and the anticipation of a "Thunder Road" cover at the end, which turns out to be a thoughtful, if not entirely successful arrangement didn't help the prejudice), or a smooth voiced version of Tom Waits in his pretty moments. But the singing is lighter and higher on the songs that call for it, achy but clean on the slow, lounge-country numbers. So he manages to wear his influences (and don't doubt that this guy has listened to "Closing Time" a time or twelve) without being a slavish imitator. Which goes for the music as well. Occasionally the lyrics seem like they could've used a little more attention (following "she always had a problem with Hemingway" with "felt he had some good things to say" seems like a pretty platitudinous and forced rhyme, particularly when elsewhere the lyrics are more careful). My only other complaint about this album is that in and out of track number six I have to endure some pre- and post- take banter between the singer and the guy on the other side of the glass, which is kind of irritating. It's as though he wants to show that he's a regular guy a, hard-working musician—I don't know. Can't you just let the music speak for itself, which it does, without interrupting the flow of one song into the next?