What can I say but just listen. The right combination of strength and vulnerability so that she (and we) don't feel so alone. And we see that with faith there is hope..

The sensual quality is there, still, but it's inside her voice(not in the pictures!). Billie's voice has a strength and an emotional depth that's hard to fathom, but I can really hear it and feel it and while the songs are not always particularly happy ones,they are beautiful--all of them. The whole album has a very earthy, rootsy, sometimes country and sometimes bluesy feel to it, and it is not "ethereal" or "airy-fairy" when the emotions surface--they have the real feelings of a real woman on them and some of them have dirt still clinging to the roots when pulled up. This album has guts and I like that! The instrumentation is absolutely perfect on every song and the use of slide guitar is really nice, while the electric guitars in this production are so well executed they, match the mood and "atmosphere" perfectly. It's very easy to tell how absolutely personally inspiring each tune was for Billie Joyce...she can bare her soul without getting maudlin or "over-the-top"...her lyrics are open and unafraid...Billie Joyce touches things and is IN touch with them...many of these songs really made me FEEL--deeply

On this, Billie's follow up album to her debut 'Love Tone' certain similarities exist by way of 1) Photographer Lee Ann Burgess once again providing gorgeous album sleeve and inlay pics 2) Shelly Miller-Kerwin's harmony vocals complementing nicely the gutsy singers lead and 3) A co-writing collaboration crafted to create another steamy rocky track; evident on 'Real Good Man', but here the similarities end.....On this album 8 out of the 12 tracks are penned solely by Billie Joyce. So we get a true insight of the songwriters psyche by way of her confessional, deeply personal and very feminine lyrics. By way of writing alone the real message to be heard is said .The generous 62-minute playing time begins with 'Season for Being Alone' and immediately you are drawn to the crisp and tight production, songwriter/guitarist/producer BJ Baartmans deserves praise here. Billie's vocals are allowed to shine and are forward in the mix.....Unusual for an opening track to have such sad overtones with these words ..'When all I'm holding are the memories of loves I've known / Must be my season for being alone / I carry this heart, it's broken and bruised/ There ain't too much of it, I have not used'...but it sets the trend for the rest of the album, relationship songs sung with a truthful openness often painful, drawn from somewhat maybe bitter experiences? This track possesses a beauty, which has you reaching for the replay button....'Heart Of A Fool' is another heartache song with a swampy gospel feel...'So how can this heart of mine be trusted When it don't know what the difference between love and lust is'...the soul searching continues on 'Bring Him Back'..I'd walked miles and miles / My soul searchin, for the man that God wanted me to have / Knew it was him, when he took me to heaven, Then he let go, and I fell hard and fast'....The darkness of the songs lead me to make a Canadian comparison with Joni Mitchell's 'Blue album' in that a songwriter can only create songs with the tools on offer on their table. An artist feeling the human condition of pain is going to shoot down as a way of dealing with situations in a cleansing manner. Sometimes the listener wishes an artist wasn't quite so honest and leaves something of themselves. If dealt with well songs retain both truth and beauty, personally I didn't find all the tracks on this album to be palatable. Having said that 'Thunder Bay' certainly is, a town in Ontario in which Billie settled before moving onto Nashville to fulfil a musical dream....This is a standout song about a true love found and lost...' Standing on that train car, the night of our first kiss / That's when I knew my heart was yours to take/ Down on the tracks , Down by the lake in Thunder Bay..I never dreamed that you would break my heart / So soon after our first night beneath the sea of stars'.. The pace of the track flows and picks up beautifully.....The songwriter finds strength on 'My Family' by way of gaining insight, and learning from values in her past. These are drawn from childhood and teenage memories on the family farm in Kamsack, Saskatchewan where she was born and raised....The last 2 songs are the albums darkest moments 'Romeo' talks of a passion found and then shattered...'I needed your touch like I needed to breathe / Where'd you go, Where'd you go Where'd you go..My Romeo....After the desperately sad 'Goodbye Joeie' from those depths the hidden title track 'One Willing Heart' emerges which is a prayer that depicts hopefulness by way of a deep religious conviction. That a special light will shine to bring the right person into her life, riding in on his white horse to whisk her away from the darkness..'Jesus please hear my prayer ..Send me someone to share..Jesus please grant me 'One Willing Heart'.....I feel a female listener may well better appreciate this album and also be able to sing along with all the words?! :) A brave project from a songwriter keen to do her "own thing" regardless of commercial acceptance and in her liner notes she trusts others will find their own truth in the words she has written.