Alt.Country review

"Defiant is the third album by Christian Williams, the youthful storyteller from Lawrence, KS. Predecessor Built with Bones surprised with bold, intense Cash-country and Defiant is even a notch better.
It is "just as dark as the last one, but with more humor and toe-tapping," as Williams says himself. And about the songs: “A collection of Gothic tales, toe-tapping lamentations and epitaphs. They come from a place where tornadoes reunite lost lovers, where evil men turn into cockroaches and where the down-and-out still manage to crack a crooked smile and stand with a defiance that only comes when you have nothing left to lose.” Behold the ghostlike musical universe of Christian Williams.
Much has stayed the same, compared with Built with Bones: A dark voice, minimal accompaniment and a desolate feeling. A bit less Johnny Cash and a bit more Nick Cave. On Defiant, Williams plays most of the instruments himself; Banjo and guitar aren’t surprising, coffee can drum and wooden frog are. More humor comes through the title of the first track, "Summer Breeze"; the up-tempo banjo and the nervous drums strongly suggest a upcoming thunderstorm over a summer breeze. Second track, "The Sad Song of Sequin Island" is a threatening ballad in the tradition of Nick Cave, and "Henry May" and "Upstairs" are also in text and in music related to the godfather of the folk-noir. "An Honest Man" and "All Of Her Kin" sound like age-old country-traditionals, and Johnny Cash’s spirit comes back in "PBR & Crackers." Tracks like "A Winter Away" and the last track "I Tried" don’t deliver that well, but they can’t cover up the fact that Defiant is a good album by a promising and headstrong musician."
3-1/2 out of 5
-Machiel Coehorst
Alt.Country (Netherlands)