VANITY FAIR NOMINATES

Victoria Williams

BECAUSE when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1992 and had no money or health insurance, a benefit at the Whisky in Los Angeles helped to pay her medical bills, and that was the beginning of Sweet Relief—a nonprofit charity “for musicians helping musicians in crisis.” BECAUSE in 1993, Pearl Jam, Lou Reed, and other musician fans covered her songs on the first Sweet Relief album, and although Williams was to receive all the proceeds, she gave the record royalties to uninsured musicians who she felt needed the money more, BECAUSE she put out a second Sweet Relief CD in 1996—a tribute to wheelchair-bound songwriter Vic Chesnutt. BECAUSE both Sweet Relief CDs have sold more than 600,000 copies, and hundreds of musicians have since received millions of dollars in assistance, BECAUSE this Shreveport, Louisiana, native has a one-of-a-kind voice that resides somewhere between Neil Young and Minnie Pearl, and on her new album (Water to Drink) she continues to mix folk, gospel, and jazz with sophisticated standards, BECAUSE Williams, 40, and her husband, Mark Olson (ex-member of the Jayhawks), live in Joshua Tree, where they record indie albums as the Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers, BECAUSE with a whisper she conveys more emotion than a dozen divas belting, BECAUSE she turned bad news into good works.