SHELBY C. BERRY
PEARLGRACE
THE POWER OF MUSIC: HOW FAITH & SONG BROUGHT PEARLGRACE’S SAMANTHA WILLIAMSON THROUGH A SERIOUS ILLNESS & BEYOND “Persistent” is one word that describes 20-yearold bluegrass musician, Samantha Williamson, who, despite having serious health struggles, placed second in the KSMU Youth in Bluegrass Competition this May alongside her band Pearlgrace & Co.
performing music. She was also informed there was a very real possibility that her voice could be different postsurgery.
In October, the surgery day “I really didn’t know what arrived. The Williamsons that would be like for me,” loaded up and took Samantha said Samantha. “God to the hospital. Although she suffered complications in surgery, she never lost sight of her love for music holding hands with her fellow Pearlgrace bandmate and mom, Jill, during the tough moments and just singing what was on her heart.
Last June, after spells of headaches, tiredness, and the loss of her peripheral v i s i o n , Samantha found out that she had a pituitary brain tumor that had been affecting her health for years. When Samantha tells the story, she talks about how music and her faith are really what brought her through this extremely scary and life- definitely used my music to help me through it. When we changing experience. scheduled the surgery, I felt Before surgery, the Williamson the urgency to record songs family shifted focus to I’d been writing and to finish Samantha’s health, backing writing others. During one of away from practicing and my MRIs, I actually worked out 22
the lyrics to a song just lying there. God blessed me in that way. I thought about what was on my heart.”
People often fall back on their favorite songs during a moment of crisis – a soothing tune or a well-written lyric can be the perfect remedy for pain or fear. For Samantha, that song was This Is My Father’s World. “On the last day I was in the
