Those talents are on display in her debut CD, “This Is Me, Is That You.” The self-released 12-song effort details the life and times of a woman who has not just survived but has grown from her experiences in life. “I've been accused of having some pretty dark music, although I don’t find it that way,” said Williams. “It is emotional and honest and real. I take something that I’m thinking about and try to get at the center of the truth.”

The themes that run through her music include love, loss, children and hope. Although she had played and sung throughout her youth, that ended when her marriage began. She had started working on her own material when she got married, but her husband didn’t like her writing or her voice, so she put the guitar away. It stayed put away for 10 years. Then the marriage broke up, and a week after her soon-to-be ex moved out she got her guitar out and started writing again.

That first tune, “Kaidi’s Song,” written for her daughter, poured out in half an hour. With lines like “I could hold you forever/And feel the power of love/The joy in your eyes, the secret smiles/Are more than I dreamed of,” she shows her ability to convey powerful feelings with eloquent, direct lyrics. Her writing proved to be a source of strength for her, her daughter Kaidi, and son Caleb, as she would sing to them at night. “There were two kids and only one of me, so it was an easy way to get them to bed,” she said. “I would sit in the hallway between their rooms with my guitar and a candle, and sing them to sleep.”

Not that her music is kid’s stuff. Songs like “Do You Believe In The Devil,” “I Took My Life” and “When You Die” tread into areas that few songwriters dare enter. “The Current Takes Me Down” describes what life feels like when you give in to the mercy of depression, only to find that it has no mercy. There are happier moments, too, as in “Custom-made Woman,” “Caleb’s Blues” and “Sanibel Island.” The latter song, about a favorite family vacation spot off the Florida coast, features Williams’ son and daughter on the chorus.

On the acoustic CD, Williams accompanies herself on guitar. She brings in a host of some of the Twin Cities’ finer musicians, including Dan Neale on pedal steel, banjo and 12 string guitar, Clint Hoover on harmonica, Lisa Fuglie on fiddle, mandolin and tin whistle, Jon Duncan on accordion and Cooker John on National steel slide guitar. Williams co-produced the CD along with Cooker John and sound engineer Bob Ryan.

The songs stand out individually, but Williams, who plays mostly around the Twin Cities area, says the whole CD is better listened to start-to-finish. “I think this CD is like a journey,” she said, “it builds on itself. When you listen to it as a whole, you can get more out of it. The first half prepares you for the second half.”