Venus (Acoustic) (Bonus Tracks)

Acclaimed songwriter-songstress Joy Williams returns with a new album, Venus (Acoustic) Williams was one half of the four time Grammy-winning duo, The Civil Wars, and has since re-embarked on her amazing solo career. Last year, her brutally honest album VENUS, her fourth solo effort, was released to critical acclaim, which NPR acknowledged as a "more adventurous pop sound" and Rolling Stone called "invitingly adventurous." Now, the deeply moving songs from that album have been stripped down to their original format for Venus (Acoustic), to be released Friday, July 22. The seven intimate tracks will include two never-before-heard songs: "Someone to Love You (Acoustic)," as well as the title track "Venus (Acoustic)." "Before VENUS was fully produced, I began by recording these songs as they were first written: with just my voice and a guitar. There was always an energy to these raw recordings, a kind of subtle mystery within the simplicity," Williams says. "I needed to go on a creative sonic journey for myself for the full solo album, and I did. But over time, it's like these songs kept asking me to look at them again, and share them in their rawest state. As if the music I'd taken to outer space asked to be sung on the front porch again... and I listened." Fearless as ever, Williams has pushed her own creative boundaries and stepped into an acting role in Cameron Crowe's Showtime series, "Roadies." Her character, "Janine" will make her first appearance on Sunday, July 24. Williams reveals, "Cameron and I met on Twitter, of all places. A love of music made us online acquaintances, but meeting up and talking about music turned us into friends." That friendship grew over time and eventually, Crowe invited her to audition for the specific role of Janine. "It was surreal being on set, and also strangely familiar," Williams confesses. "While making music and acting in a show are two different animals, there is some crossover: the art of creating something together that you could never make on your own, improvising in the moment, following your instincts, and how you have to tap into your own story to make an idea spring to life."