Ride With Me, the self-produced new album from McKinney's Zane Williams, a prodigal Texan who returned after writing Jason Michael Carroll's hit song "Hurry Home" on Nashville's music row, is a neo-traditional prize, pleasingly rife with the PBR-scented tones of fiddle and pedal steel. Along with those hardwood-tested sounds, Williams sings of falling in love, whether it be with a woman or a newborn child.
Simplicity is a tool that is often mishandled in the hands of the wrong artist. But with Williams, the evident sincerity of "Born Into Love" is proof that he's a certified craftsman in the ways in which restraint can be honestly penetrating.
Williams' third album fits restfully between the frat-boy rock of red dirt and the high-def sheen of contemporary country, thus lending a heartening peek into the possibility that great modern country might not always attract the glossy pop crowd.
