Lucinda Williams
Car Wheels On A Gravel Road (Bonus Disc)

THE REVIEW

Here is the true, splendid Lucinda Williams: between country, Tapestry, and folk-rock d'auteur à la Joni Mitchell.

It took her six years to produce "Car Wheels…", which was released for the first time in 1998 with thirteen tracks that definitively drew attention to this artist from Lake Charles, Louisiana. Despite the long gestation process, the individual tracks do not suffer from "overproduction"; instead, they remain straightforward, fluid, and "muddy" like the landscape of the lower Mississippi itself, which in the album - you can bet! - reigns supreme.

Lucinda carries out an operation that we could define as "turning her soul inside out like a glove," revealing all of herself in intimate lyrics like "Right In Time" and in others that express the feeling of being "on the road" (practically all the remaining ones, here and there enriched by masterful slide guitars). The album should be considered an autobiography of the youthful years of the blonde singer-songwriter, and the names of the musicians who collaborated on this production inevitably provoke the "a-ah!" effect: Steve Earle, Donald Lindley, Charlie Sexton, Buddy Miller, and the ever-present Emmylou Harris (among others). It's one of those CDs that seem to tell you "cool up!", "calm down and listen", and my advice is to enjoy it in its entirety (including the bonuses) while letting it flow from the car stereo, preferably while on a long journey. It's impossible not to be drawn to the lyrics: pure poetry with references destined for all lovers of rock-blues and folk. Here are two exemplary excerpts:

"We used to drive / Through Lafayette and Baton Rouge / In a yellow El Camino / Listening to Howlin Wolf..." ("Lake Charles")

"We'd put on ZZ Top / and turn 'em up real loud / I used to think you were strong / I used to think you were proud / I used to think nothing could be wrong" ("Metal Firecracker").

Although the sound of the first edition of Car Wheels... was already exceptional, the album (which won a Grammy and a gold record) has been released in several other remastered versions, where Williams' voice thankfully remains untouched while the sound carpet has been made more fluid and crystalline - where needed. The extra tracks in this and all the other "enhanced" reissues are interesting.

Thanks to "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road", Lucinda, who was already highly appreciated among others by Tom Petty (who did a cover of "Changed the Locks" from the singer-songwriter's first self-produced album), earned the praise of various folk and country legends. New York rock musician Jesse Malin, a well-known big fan of Neil Young, Tom Waits, and Steve Earle, must have also been enchanted by Williams, so much so that in his latest album "Glitter in the Gutter" (2007) he dedicated a song to her, bearing her very name: "Lucinda".