In the brief story-song "Happy," Los Angeles-based Victoria Williams tells of a woman who has a dog named Happy. When she calls for it, all her neighbors think that she's shouting that she's happy and that she's "crazy, right out of her head." A lot of people will probably have the same reaction to Williams – who is married to singer-songwriter Peter Case – as she sings the praises of shoes, animals, bums, her rural Southern childhood and numerous other joys and sorrows in a high, quavery Louisiana drawl.

Well, maybe Williams is a bit crazy; she's certainly a character, as anyone who's seen her consistently charming, but unpredictable, just-me-and-whatever friends-showed-up-to-play concerts well knows. But as she sings in "Merry-Go-Round," "the key to the merry-go-round is the merry," and on her debut album, Williams is at her delightful best when – to use an image from the lead song, "Shoes" – she's allowed to run barefoot through the mud, shouting to the world how good it feels.

Unfortunately, that's not often enough the case on this record. Anton Fier (of Golden Palominos fame), who produced the album with later contributions from Steven Soles, has put too much formal structure into many of the neo-folkie settings to really allow Williams's personality to shine. Sometimes it works, notably on Van Dyke Parks's three brilliant Stephen Foster-on-acid arrangements ("Shoes," "Main Road" and "T.C."), the countryish "Frying Pan" and the pop gem "Merry-Go-Round." But too often the arrangements nearly bury the exuberant woman-child spontaneity that's evident in Williams's voice and world view. (RS 514)

STEVE HOCHMAN