Hudson, Wis.-based Bronwen Williams delivers a stunning debut, brimming as it does with songs of dashed romances and failed dreams of happily-ever-afterness, single-motherhood, dark nights of the soul, loneliness, thoughts of suicide (one song actually speaks from beyond the pale) and . . . hey! you say, it's the holidays. Lighten up!

In fact, there are many moments of light here, not the least centered around her children: in one she admonishes her young son that he doesn't really need to spend all of his time playing with his violence-prone action figures; in another she tells her daughter that someday she, too, will have someone to hug and to love. And a trip to the islands proves to be just the tonic.

There's a lot of dancing on the razor's edge between sanity and insanity here, but there's also just enough of a silver lining of hope buried under the lyrics to make you believe the singer will be alright.

Telling her tales with a voice of sparkling purity, Williams is accompanied here by a handful of Twin Cities players, names you will recognize if you follow Trailer Trash, Martin Zellar and the Hardways, Bomba, the Cooker John Band and the Deadly Nightshade Family Singers. there is a kind of acoustic, parlor vibe that works very nicely.

On the other hand, there are a couple of things here -- a children's chorus, a kind of contrived affectation that litters much folk music -- that drive me to distraction. But those are minor, and problems of my own. They certainly should not dissuade folkies, fans of women's music and other open to a new local experience from seeking out this fine offering from a promising voice.

--- James Tarbox, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 12-06-99