Carla Williams – “Every Word You’re Thinking”

In 2007, after over a decade of working in the family business, Alabama native Carla Williams decided to pursue her lifelong dream of country music stardom; perhaps encouraged by the stories of Elizabeth Cook (a former staff auditor at Price Waterhouse) and Laura Cantrell (who worked on Wall Street), both of whom ditched their day jobs in favor of successful music careers.

Williams has a lovely voice: Rich, expressive and on ballads vaguely reminiscent of Anne Murray in her heyday. But unlike Cook and Cantrell there’s nothing that distinguishes Williams from a thousand other women with good voices who are trying to make it big in country music at any given moment.

Williams’ debut single “Every Word You’re Thinking” is a first attempt at starting down the long road to industry success. The lyrics are solid, telling the story of a woman watching her marriage fall apart while her husband finds comfort in the arms of another. “All the things that you don’t say/Read like headlines on the wall/No more whispering ‘I love you’/When we even talk at all/So if I sound a little drunk, I promise I’m not drinkin’/It’s just I know what lies ahead/I hear every word you’re thinking.” Shoot, if I’ve learned anything from listening to country music, it’s that a cheating spouse is total justification for getting “a little drunk.”

Decent lyrics and a nice enough voice should add up to a pretty enjoyable song, right?

Unfortunately, the godawful arrangement torpedoes “Every Word You’re Thinking,” turning material that could have been a good song into three and a half minutes of agony. The song begins with a tinkly piano intro that sounds straight out of the Faith Hill reject pile, circa 2001 (remember “There You’ll Be?” You probably wish you didn’t).

There are other, more interesting tracks on Williams’ debut album I’m Home, making the choice of “Every Word You’re Thinking” as the first single rather puzzling. Hopefully it will not stop Williams’ music career before it even gets started.

Produced and written by Steve Dorff–a man who’s had 11 Billboard #1 awards and written/produced/arranged for an impressive roster of musicians which includes George Strait, Dusty Springfield, and Whitney Houston–”Every Word You’re Thinking” seems like a miss.

But even DiMaggio struck out every now and again.

Listen on mySpace: Carla Williams – “Every Word You’re Thinking”