How does one go from recording one’s first album on the Smithsonian Folkways label, the ational museum of the United States, to a self-titled album on a British indie-punk label that helped define the Alt-Country genre? It helps to be Lucinda Williams.
Released in 1979, Williams’ first LP for Smithsonian Folkways mostly featured her covering other songs from the Folkways library, and served as a showcase of what was still to come for this talented and unique musician — solid guitar playing and a voice that gets to the heart of the song.
It was her next album, Happy Woman Blues, also on Smithsonian Folkways, that highlighted Williams’ songwriting ability, a talent that she would completely unleash on her next release, Lucinda Williams, on Rough Trade Records.
Williams signed a development deal with CBS records in the mid 80’s, but CBS passed on the follow through when neither their rock nor country divisions could figure out how to market her.
Rough Trade Records, who at one time had signed such diverse bands as The Butthole Surfers, They Might Be Giants, and the Brakes, signed Williams when CBS dropped her from the label.
Spin Alternate Record Guide, a book highlighting Spin Magazine’s Greatest Alternative Record reviews, and published in 1995, listed the album as one of the 100 Greatest Alternative Records.
Williams’ next album, Sweet Old World, was released on Chameleon Records, owned in part by Chicagoan Dan Pritzker of the band Sonia Dada. The album is a sad and beautiful outpouring of emotion, thematically dealing with death and suicide.
Her next album, on Mercury records, crystallized her standing as a songwriter. On Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, Williams pushes the boundaries of folk, blues, and country while telling her stories of love, loves lost, and relationships as only she can. Her efforts paid off with a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1999. The inability of CBS to categorize her has been one of the keys to her successful career.
Williams has been nominated for fifteen Grammys in genre blurring fashion. She garnered nominations in the Folk, Pop, Rock, and Country categories. In addition to her 1999 Grammy for Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, Williams won a 1993 Grammy for Best Country Song for “Passionate Kisses”, and in 2002 Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for “Get Right With God”, off of her first album for Lost Highway Records, Essence.
Recently back from a European tour, Lucinda Williams hasn’t slowed down a bit. She came back to the US and kicked off the tour for the 25th anniversary of the release of the album Lucinda Williams, and just in time to grace the Tryon Stage this Saturday, September 7, at 9:30 p.m.