Car Wheels on a Gravel Road - Williams, Lucinda (CD 1998)

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road won Lucinda Williams a Grammy for best Contemporary Folk album of 1998. I can t think of a recording that deserved accolades the way that this one does. My brother, who must have been afraid that I might die without hearing the 13 masterpieces contained within, gave me a copy of the CD, and it wasn t even my birthday.

Possessing a unique voice and a masterful set of songwriting skills, Lucinda Williams tried (and succeeded) to avoid overproducing Car Wheels, despite using the better part of four years to complete this project. Less than two years after its initial release, many of the songs are already being added to play lists at music festivals all over the country. I heard a wonderful acoustic rendition of Jackson performed by a talented folk quartet at a recent show.

Williams s songwriting mastery is demonstrated by her ability to work phrases we ve all heard into her songs. In the title song, Lucinda exclaims, When I get back, this room better be picked up Didn t your Mama ever say that? In 2Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten, she weaves the hilarious signs found on the walls of dive, juke joint bars into the lyrics House rules, no exceptions/No bad language, no gambling, no fighting/Sorry, no credit, don t ask/Bathroom wall reads: Is God the answer Yes

These 13 songs describe fascinating losers (Drunken Angel, Concrete and Barbed Wire), rueful heartbreak (Right in Time, Can t Let Go), and righteous anger (Joy).

This is an essential collection for those who appreciate singer-songwriter performers. It is and is not folk, country, or rock all at once. There is not a bad song on the recording and all you want to do when the last notes of the last song fade away is to play it again, and again