1 Lucinda Williams

Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

MERCURY 1998, £7

You say: “Car WheelsÉ is a masterpiece, unrivalled in my opinion.” Paul Beard, via Twitter

Making an album rarely came easily to Williams, and Car Wheels

On A Gravel Road might have been the hardest of all to date. She signed with Rick Rubin’s American label in 1995, recording almost a whole album with longtime collaborator Gurf Morlix before shelving it and re-recording it in Nashville. Three years followed with other producers, including at one point Steve Earle. The two came to blows – Earle wanted to do it quickly; Williams wanted to take her time – but Earle still considers it “One of the best things I’ve ever been involved in.” It’s an Americana classic, unique and influential. It won her two Grammys, topped no end of critics’ polls, and made her name as one of the most important songwriters of her time, thanks to songs of the magnitude of the title track, Lake Charles, Drunken Angel (about fellow troubadour, the late Blaze Foley) and Joy.