Lucinda Williams “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” (1998)
For Williams’ fifth album, she ended her working relationship with
producer Gurf Morlix and worked instead with alt-country star Steve
Earle who described it as “the least amount of fun I’ve had working on a
record”.
Whatever the case behind the scenes, the album turned out alright. It’s
loosely classed under the ‘country’ label, but in practise is a mix of
rootsy folky country, like on album closer “Jackson”;
and melodic Southern-Rock with enough twang and other country
affectations to keep it within that camp, such as album opener “Right in
Time”. Similar sound to Sheryl Crow, but (a) more country than that
and (b) Lucinda had been releasing music since the 70s so predates Crow.
This didn’t blow my mind, but I found enough to enjoy in there that I’d happily listen to it again.
