Best National Folk Act

Lucinda Williams

Rumors of a new Lucinda Williams album started circulating soon after 1992's Sweet Old World (Chameleon). For the next six years, fans impatiently waited and wondered as tentative release dates came and went. She teased us with small flashes of her distinctively expressive and heart-wrenching voice on compilations like Sweet Relief and Tulare Dust. She showed up in duets with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Buddy Miller and Steve Earle. Finally, last year, Mercury released Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Not only did she win the Worcester Phoenix poll, but her Car Wheels won a Grammy (Best Contemporary Folk Album), claimed the top position on the Village Voice "Pazz and Jop" critics' poll, and was called one of the Essential Recordings of the '90s by Rolling Stone. Lucinda Williams had critical clout before, as far back as her 1978 debut on the legendary Folkways label. But now the singer/songwriter is beginning to reach the masses, actually selling a few CDs. In concerts around the nation, she's been wowing audiences with songs like "2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten," the title track, and the most rockin' country song in decades (which she uses to close her shows), the bittersweet "Joy." It was worth the wait.

-- David Ritchie