Hank Williams' Grandkid Jumps Outside Country Box

Holly Williams is a descendant of country legends—Hank Williams was her grandfather, Hank Williams Jr. her father—but she’s no “cowboy hat-wearing country girl,” she tells the Telegraph. The singer and boutique owner, who admires artists from Dolly Parton to Radiohead, releases her second album Tuesday, and she says she hopes Nashville is ready to see that “you can do things outside the box and still be successful.”

“I don’t want to reject country music because obviously that is what made my family,” Williams says. “If I say I don’t listen to country radio, I sound like I am being snobbish.” Nonetheless, her music has clear country influences, and she is excited by young Nashville artists like Jack White and Kings of Leon who are causing “country people to open their eyes a little more.” (More Jay-ZTV stories.)