BIGSONG:
Based in Jonesboro, Arkansas, singer/songwriter Zach Williams led the Southern rock band Zach Williams & the Reformation before turning toward inspirational music in his solo career, scoring a Christian hit single with 2016’s “Chain Breaker.” After capturing a live set in a Nashville prison, he delivered his sophomore solo album, Rescue Story, in 2019, which received the deluxe edition treatment two years later. Electric RevivalBorn in Pensacola, Florida, Williams was raised in Jonesboro, Arkansas. In 2007, he formed the Reformation with guitarist Josh Copeland, guitarist Robby Rigsbee, bassist Red Dorton, and drummer Creed Slater. Over the next five years, they toured the South and, on occasion, Europe. They cut two independent albums — 2009’s Electric Revival and 2011’s A Southern Offering — before disbanding in 2012.Chain BreakerAfter the breakup, Williams turned to religion, becoming the worship leader of the Central Baptist Church in Jonesboro in 2014. He continued to work on music, now singing inspirational songs. In 2016, he signed with Provident’s Essential imprint and released “Chain Breaker,” which became a Christian hit. The Jonathan Smith-produced Chain Breaker EP arrived in September of that year with a full-length album of the same name following in December 2016. Williams next turned his musical ministry to a Nashville-based prison where he and his band performed an acoustic set for the inmates; it was released as the 2017 EP Survivor: Live from Harding Prison. The full-length Rescue Story, his proper follow-up to Chain Breaker, arrived in 2019 and featured a guest spot from Dolly Parton. Early 2020 saw Williams issue the singles “Empty Grave” and “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” and in 2021 he released a deluxe edition of Rescue Story that included a new single, “Less Like Me.”
