IV AND THE STRANGE BAND

In the organizer's words:

"Patience is a virtue." These words are tattooed on Coleman Williams' right arm, forever reminding the alternative country singer and songwriter how good it is to take your time.
The lesson wasn't always so clear. As the great-grandson of Hank Williams Sr., grandson of Hank Williams Jr. and only son of Hank 3, Coleman struggled for years with the expectations his own lineage placed on him. He represented the fourth generation of country music's most legendary family - hence his nickname "IV" - and the pressure to launch his own career was enormous.

Though Coleman would eventually make his mark with Southern Circus - the genre-crossing debut from his band IV and the Strange Band that combined southern storytelling and country textures with 100-watt guitar amps and DIY attitude - he first had to break free and find his own musical approach in the process. "Before I even knew who I was, people were already expecting things from me," he says. "It felt like there was no freedom of expression at all for someone with the surname 'Williams'. Singing about a bloodline didn't appeal to me though. I didn't want to fit into a shadow that already existed. What appealed to me was the underground scene in Nashville."

Coleman became a passionate advocate of the Nashville house show scene as a teenager, drawn to the supportive spirit and DIY ethic of the scene. This was a community that valued principles over pedigrees. A community that provided a place for artists of all stripes to express themselves. From punk shows to heavy metal gigs to electronic experimentation, Coleman loved it all... and for the first time in his life, he felt like he belonged somewhere. "I was a strange kid growing up in an unusual situation," he says. "When I started going to house shows in Nashville, I felt like I had found a family of people that no one else wanted - kids who were different and misunderstood - and during those two-hour shows, everyone belonged, everyone felt accepted and everyone had their place. This experience taught me to trust my instincts. It gave me a new sense of independence. I have to believe that was also why Hank Williams made music; he could see what it did to people."

Inspired to forge his own path, Coleman left town after high school and traveled across America, developing a taste in music as diverse as the country itself. Over the next decade, he became a history buff, poet, metalworker and educator. Back home in Nashville, he continued his lifelong practice of songwriting and developed the unique sound - a blend of amplified and acoustic music, sometimes with fiddle and sometimes with hard guitars - that would later fill Southern Circus. Coleman took his time. He wanted the sound to be right. After all, patience is a virtue. Local producer Jason Dietz became a fan of Coleman's songs, which prompted the two to work together. Guitarist David Talley joined them, as did banjo player Daniel Mason and drummer Carson Kehrer. All five musicians (as well as violinist Laura Beth Jewell and steel guitarist John Judkins, both of whom are featured on the record) had different musical backgrounds, but they worked together to create something new, using Coleman's acoustic melodies as a template for a Southern sound that was soothing one minute and jarring the next. An album was taking shape. Shortly before his thirtieth birthday, Coleman Williams made his long-awaited debut with "Son of Sin", a single released by IV and the Strange Band in 2021.

"I like to say, 'What doesn't kill you makes you weirder,'" he explains. "I love the strange and I love my Strange Band. The most genuine people in this world are the ones who allow themselves to be the weirdos they really are, because when you suppress yourself, you become someone you're not." Coleman channeled this love of weirdness and self-assurance in Southern Circus, which bounces back and forth between autobiographical songs and story-driven pieces inspired by Coleman's historical interests. In "Inbred," he transforms the true story of the Fugates - a Kentucky family whose incestuous history in the 19th century drew the attention and ire of religious zealots - into a song about Christian hypocrisy. "Malice" is a cocky country song based on a newspaper article about a married couple who decided to poison the other on the same morning, while "Drinking Sad" pays tribute to the outlaw country bar songs that formed the soundtrack to Coleman's childhood. Fittingly, modern outlaw Jaime Wyatt is featured on the hauntingly elegant "Broken Pieces," where he contributes vocals to a song that, as Coleman puts it, "is about the idea that someone can't really love you if they don't know how broken you really are." Perhaps nothing sums up Coleman Williams' story better than "Stand Your Ground," an anthem that seizes the day and advises the listener to roll with the punches of the world and not let it get you down. The song begins with a leisurely gallop, only to segue into a faster section driven by train beats, banjo arpeggios and Coleman's anthemic melodies. There are hints of country twang and rock'n'roll sound throughout, brought together by a man unafraid to blur the dividing line between these camps. Southern Circus offers a glimpse into Coleman's personal world, and under that circus tent, all southern sounds - and all people - are welcome. "PT Barnum always said, 'The clowns are the heart of the circus,'" Coleman notes. "Circus is about expression - about being yourself and finding a unique family, just like the house show scene - and clowns embody that spirit. They're comfortable with being themselves, and they try to give you a pure, emotional catharsis. I love that. I feel like the clown of this Southern Circus." Southern Circus strikes a balance between spectacle and spirit, determination and redemption, melodies and muscle. It's the sound of a man honoring his pedigree while planting his own garden. To make it, Coleman had to leave home, explore sounds beyond his bloodline's catalog, and challenge the world's expectations that he would enter the family business. Southern Circus is his homecoming: an album where he doesn't fall into a legacy, but earns it.