Williams Riley is bringing a fresh new voice to the world of cookie-cutter, country music with their gumbo of musical talents and influences. They draw you in with great songs and then blow you away with an amazing, connective performance. Their dynamic sound stems from Steve Williams’ one-of-a-kind, soulful voice and the smooth harmony contributions of elite guitarists, Derek George and Charlie Hutto. The band’s varying background, range of influences, and musical creativity produces a truly unique sound that is evident in all of their music, and is bound to knock the country music industry off its feet.

The band brings together influences ranging from the Eagles to the Allman Brothers, from bluegrass to R&B. They produce intelligently written, tightly played country with real edge. "What we're doing lyrically and stylistically is really what we are," says Williams, "If you put us separately, Charlie's going to have a lot of Texas and Southern rock influence, Derek may have more pop-rock, and maybe blues from Mississippi. I would combine Southern rock with a more R&B style, but put it all together in Louisiana, where I'm from, and you've got a gumbo of music, this mixture of great ingredients, and we just put it all together." It's music that engages as it entertains, and it straddles worlds many artists have had difficulty bringing together. "This seemed like a band that belonged together," says Williams, "because so many of them knew and liked each other and had performed with each other for years. The funny thing was I brought them all together by coincidence, but it sure made it seem like it was meant to be.

From the stage to the recording studio, the members of Williams Riley push themselves musically to produce a product that is completely unique. "When I first came to Nashville," Williams says, "I was told how much I didn't sound country, and they're right. But I guess in hindsight it's turning out to be a nice distinction." For Derek George, the tipping point came as he and the other members of Williams Riley opened for Edwin McCain in Biloxi. If George, after more than a decade as a highly successful songwriter, guitarist, and harmony singer, needed convincing that this new project was worth pursuing, he got it that night. "It was our first weekend out," he says. "I knew we had a talented bunch of guys, but the reaction we got from that crowd told us we also had the right material and the right approach. We knew then and there we were onto something good, and we couldn't get into the studio fast enough to start getting it down."

Williams Riley have been able to capture the energy of their live performances and the depth of their harmonies thanks to presence of two producers—George, whose work as co-writer, harmony singer and guitarist with country star Bryan White was responsible for a number of hits, and Noel Golden, known for work with matchbox twenty, Metallica, Sister Hazel and Willie Nelson/Lee Ann Womack, to name a few. George and Golden have worked on multiple projects over the past couple of years including Williams Riley’s debut album, multiple radio singles, and the band’s new album, “A Different Kind Of Country”. "I'm very uncomfortable inside a box," says Williams. "No matter what we do, I just have to bend the rules a little. So, as we were putting this together, I thought, 'What if I have this guy who can paint the white lines and keep us inside the box just a little, but I have this other guy who can let us bang the edges the whole time and sound different? That's what we did, and I love the way it worked out." Aside from the superior production and session A-listers including Dan Dugmore, Kenny Greenberg, Aubrey Haynie, and John Hobbs, the trio was also able have to likes of Bryan White, Edwin McCain and Guns N’ Roses/Guitar Hero icon Slash (participation on the song "Road & Me") to lend their talents to some of their studio projects. That production combination and line-up of talented musicians makes for music that showcases a band building a reputation on grit and believability, on tight harmonies and high energy, on the ability to move from heart-tugging to rowdy and do both convincingly.

“Everybody participating was passionate about what we’re doing. Not long ago, I was just a guy writing songs in Louisiana. Now a bunch of my heroes are playing with me and my band on my songs because they love what I’m doing, that tells me that we must be doing something right.”   - Steve Williams

Most recently, the band hit the studio again to cut the hit, “Life In the Fast Lane”. Williams Riley had been performing “Life In the Fast Lane” frequently at their shows. It is always seemed to be a hit with the crowd. It was important when they got into the studio that they captured the energy that the crowd felt during a live performance. The solid guitar duo with George and Hutto really kicks up the volume on the track. The song also reverberates with the tight harmonies from both George and Hutto, and is really set off by Williams’ soul-filled, lead vocals.

Another iconic song that can be found on the group’s most recent album, “A Different Kind of Country”, is “The Toast”. The heartfelt tune is truly a crowd favorite at shows. "We were playing it live," Williams recalls, "and I saw this lady standing with her eyes closed and her hands over her heart, and I thought, 'She's back in high school or in college. She's in a bar reminiscing about the good times she had or something. That's what I want to write about. I would just like to think that our songs make people think, that they challenge people." "The first time we played 'Toast' live," adds Hutto, "people were singing the chorus by the second time we got to it. When you can accomplish something like that, you know you've really done it." Its moments like this that flow throughout Williams Riley’s music, and showcase the inclusive nature of the group's musical gumbo.

For Williams the journey was a long one from Larose, Louisiana, where "you either grow up to be a fisherman or you're going to work in the oil fields. I tried the fishing thing and it didn't work for me at all." In the summer before his last year of high school he worked in the oil fields, and he went back after a quick stab at college, supporting his family while playing in bands on the side. He was still doing both when a friend got a copy of some of his songs to McCain, who was performing at the House of Blues. McCain listened on his bus and called Williams, suggesting he visit him in McCain’s home town of Greenville, South Carolina, where he had just built a studio. Williams met Golden there, and the two recorded an indie album which sold well at concerts--Williams sold 400 during one gig in Chicago. Williams teamed up for a brief time with British singer/songwriter Pete Riley, keeping the name after an amicable split and looking for a new direction.

First on board was Hutto.

"From the first time I talked to Steve," he says, "I knew he was no B.S. kind of guy. He was a 'go get it done' dude who had a vision for where this thing should go, and he wasn't scared to knock down doors to make it happen. I had never really met someone like that. Before I even heard a note of the music, I said, 'Yeah, man, let's go for it.'"

Hutto was "a child of the early '90s" whose Dad literally tossed his just-purchased copy of a Nirvana songbook out their car window and took him back to the store to buy him the songbooks of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Stevie Ray Vaughn. "That really changed my musical direction," he says. As a senior in high school, he started a landscaping business with a friend who played Alan Jackson, Clint Black, and Diamond Rio in the truck, turning him into a country fan. He started a band with a college friend, spent three years in Miranda Lambert's band, then sent some songs to legendary Texas steel guitar player and producer Lloyd Maines, who produced a record for him and convinced him it was possible to make a living writing songs. Although he'd been accepted to dental school, he went instead to the Berklee School of Music, finishing a double major in just two years. He subsequently played for Pat Green, Jeff Allen, Ashley Ray and Danielle Peck.

George heard “the sound of electric guitar when I was seven or eight years old, and I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life." He had his first guitar at 13 and by 15 he was playing clubs on weekends. By the time he was a senior in high school, he was in a band called Pearl River that earned a deal on Capitol and released two albums. Through the band's management company, Derek met Bryan White, and when Pearl River had run its course, he became White's guitarist and co-writer on songs including the 1 smash "So Much For Pretending." He then concentrated on songwriting in Nashville, penning songs for Rascal Flatts, Josh Gracin, Wynonna and Diamond Rio, among others.

If there is one more secret to the group's success, says George, it’s that "we don't want to take ourselves too seriously. Music is communal and ought to be fun. We definitely come from that place. We're positive, upbeat guys." The rest goes back to following the group’s collectively unique vision."We don't want to pigeonhole ourselves into any one thing," George adds. "We want to be able to go all over the map. It's hard enough to write good music. We'd rather not have those kinds of restrictions. When we finish a song, it either works for us or it doesn't." At this point, everything's working, for the band and for fans alike, and Williams Riley is bringing a fresh new voice to the world of country music.