CJ Solar and Alex Williams

CJ Solar and Alex Williams

Alex Williams

Alex Williams is a self-described “long-haired writer and singer of songs.” He jokingly quips that he blames his father for exposing him to 80’s hair metal as a kid and credits his grandad for setting him straight with Willie, Waylon, and Billy Joe Shaver.
Originally from Pendleton, Indiana on the outskirts of Indianapolis, Williams has been paying his dues as a songwriter in Nashville and in the biker bars and beer joints in parts unknown for the past eight years. He’s currently working on his debut album with Grammy-winning producer Julian Raymond (Glen Campbell, Hank Williams, Jr., Cheap Trick, et. al.).

CJ Solar

With the fuel of both Southern rock and country music influences pumping through his veins, it’s no surprise that Sea Gayle Music’s CJ Solar is a natural at fusing the two worlds. Combine that with Delta blues, compliments of a childhood spent in Cajun country, and you’ve got one badass up-and-comer, with the pure musical talent and vocal chops to back him up. Already turning heads throughout Nashville, Baton Rouge and beyond, having been named one of the “Top New Artists You Need To Know” by Rolling Stone Country, CJ says the driving force behind his current success isn’t fame nor fortune – it’s just a diehard infatuation with the music he grew up on.

“I just want to write songs that say something that really means something. I want to ride around in a van, tour the country, and play songs with my buds. Everything I do in music, I want to do it for the love of the music and the sake of the song,” he adds.

It all started back in Baton Rouge where his family’s affinity for music struck a chord. “My grandparents loved country music. My dad was a big classic rock fan,” he said. “Dad kept a guitar in a closet, and I dug it out when I was seven and started making noise of my own with it,” Solar recalls. That so-called “noise” would sharpen quickly, through lessons at the young age of eight, to enrollment at Nashville’s Belmont University, to cuts on albums by Justin Moore and Jerrod Niemann, and, now, his own critically acclaimed solo EP that’s turning heads, Hard One to Turn Down.

And a Hard One To Turn Down, the EP is. Critics at The Daily Country write, “Solar injects a hefty (and welcome) dose of Southern rock into his country, which melds perfectly with his gravelly vocals.” Country Music Rocks was “immediately captivated by all five songs and hopes that [the EP] obtains the recognition it deserves.” The Rowdy found it “exactly what country fans are looking to savor.” And The Shotgun Seat welcomes Hard One to Turn Down as “the perfect pairing of country storytelling and rocking rhythms, married by his dynamic vocals.” And that’s only the beginning.