NEWS

Stephanie Beck Williams

• Listen Up in Country Weekly Magazine
• Featured article in Beach Blvd Magazine
• Try Me single for Adoption Awareness

See Stephanie in Country Weekly Magazine!

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Featured Article in Beach Blvd Magazine
by MIKE LACEY
photography by DREW TARTAR & JOHN FITZHUGH

Stephanie Beck Williams may wear boots on stage but she likes her feet in the sand.
"I've been in Nashville for 14 or 15 years, " she says, "but it's still not home. Biloxi's home."
She misses the genuiness of the people here. "You make these bonds and friendships, and these relationships have been with me my whole life. Nashville is a wonderful place. I have never thought about changing cities other than being back in Biloxi. I just love it here with all my heart."
Williams' fame began to rise recently when she won Country Music Television's Music City Madness online talent contest. She earned more than 1.2 million votes with her video of "D.R.U.N.K." The song is featured on her debut released in July. The CD was produced by her husband, Dan Williams, through his company, Dan Williams Music & Motion.

Williams was born in Texas but was adopted as an infant. Her family settled in Biloxi when she was 10. Even before that, she had music in her heart.

"I did my first church solo at 3," she says. "I was supposed to sing with another little girl, but I wouldn't let her have the microphone."

In Biloxi, she took piano and voice lessons from the late Hilda Barnes, a well-known music teacher and choral director on the Coast.

Williams laughs at the memory. "She thought I was too commercial. But, she was so sweet and said she was proud of my direction."

She later performed at Biloxi High School and then at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg as part of the three-girl trio called The Southern Dolls.

She moved to Nashville immediately after graduating with a marketing degree.

But even as she plies her trade in the music business, the Coast keeps pulling at her. "I just always saw myself living in a really fast, big city when I moved away from Biloxi," she says. "But I instantly missed it so much. I realized what really felt like home was the calmness and laid back way of the Deep South."

Her memories include volleyball on the beach; the senior skip day salvaged by a reprieve from a forgiving teacher; shrimp po-boys at Fayards and Barq's root beer..

Those memories are reflected in her music.

"Most of the songs kind of just came one by one," she says. "Really the process was over quite a bit of time."

While her release of a debut album may be a little late out of the gate in the age-obsessed music industry, it was perfect timing for the mother of a 4-year-old.

"I could have done it, but I don't think I wold have created the record that I wanted to make if I had done it earlier," Williams says. "The albums I've always loved the most are concept albums. They take your imagination places. I think music today is so different than ever before, and it doesn't bother me so much because country music has a mature side about it. It has a story side to it.

While her most notable work has just recently come her way, she's no newcomer to the music/entertainment industry. She was a songwriter for Milsap Galbraith Music and has sung national commercials for McDonald's, Toyota and Kmart. As a backup vocalist, she has recorded with Dolly Parton, Isaac Hayes and Daryl Worley, among others. She also became a successful owner/manager of a modeling and talent agency, Wilhelmina Dan Agency.

"I would be surprised if there wasn't more in me," Williams says. "But I'm so satisfied right now. The album was such a long time coming. It was a project I put a lot of my heart and soul in. This might be the one and only, I don't know. But I will always do music.

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Click to hear the song, 'Try Me', performed by Stephanie Beck Williams.

After seeing a heart-breaking database of thousands of children and teen's pictures in the United States who are waiting to be adopted, we wanted to raise the awareness of the need to adopt right here in the U.S. In honor of the late, James Brown, Stephanie, who is an adopted child, herself, recorded "Try Me". When you picture the powerful images of smiling children hoping for a family along with listening to the powerful lyrics of James Brown's song, it's as if the words are coming out of the waiting children and teen's own hearts. Please visit adoption websites to learn how to adopt children right here in the United States.

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	Stephanie with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders on the set of her new music video, Not Your Normal Country Girl.
	Stephanie sings backgrounds with Dolly for Pigeon Forge.
	Stephanie and Broken Bow Artist, Jason Aldean, working on a national commercial.
	Stephanie sings background vocals for Darryl Worley's national campaign, I Found Love in a K-Mart Store.
Pictured L-R: CMT Radio Network's Joe Zanger, Stephanie Beck Williams, and CMT Radio Networks Intern Kristi Curry.	Stephanie Beck Williams stopped by CMT Radio Network to discuss her 'madness' as a contestant of Country Music Television Music City Madness national talent search. Williams got the idea for 'D.R.U.N.K.' by being a mother and having to spell everything children should not hear. She now lives in Nashville and owns the Wilhelmina Dan Modeling Agency.
	Steph with the CMT crew in Denver on the CMT Music Madness Tour.
	Stephanie and D.J. Tracy Taylor from 92.5, the WOLF in Colorado, from the CMT Music City Madness Tour.
	Stephanie Beck Williams with the cowgirls from 92.5 The Wolf in Denver, Colorado at the CMT Cross Country Tour.
Luc Brinker (Wilhelmina LA), Steph, and Susan Day (editor of Nashville Parent Magazine).	Stephanie's Agency donated 2,500 dollars to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for Nashville Parent magazine's 'Cover Kids' event.