By Tom Finkel Thu., Sep. 4 2014
Lucinda Williams will release a double album, Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, September 30, on her very own label, Highway 20 Records.
She borrowed the title from a line in a poem by her father, Miller Williams, called “Compassion,” which she adapted into the lyrics of the first track. Another cover — if you can call “Compassion” a cover — a version of the late J.J. Cale’s “Magnolia” that clocks in just shy of 10 minutes, closes the 20-song collection. Other than that, the material is all original.
And the album is — how to put this? — the best work of Lucinda Williams’s career.
See also: Lucinda Williams Brings Her 1988 Breakthrough Disc Back to Life
Williams spoke with the Voice about the recording sessions in a post we published earlier this year. At that time, she described the atmosphere in the studio as “a Tony Joe White, Bobbie Gentry, ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ kind of thing. We were debating whether we should do a double CD or put two separate ones out at the same time. What we’re gonna do, I think, is put them out about six months apart and kind of separate the songs so it’s, like, the rock one and the non-rock one.”
On that last count, she changed her mind.
Tony Joe White actually plays guitar on two cuts. Bill Frisell appears on a couple as well (including “Magnolia”). Elvis Costello’s rhythm section — Davey Faragher on bass, Pete Thomas on drums — splits time with Williams’s own David Sutton and Butch Norton. The legendary Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan is featured prominently.
Back in January, Williams characterized the studio sound as “country-soul.” The country is there, all right, but it’s indisputably Williams country. And the soul often edges on r&b. The songwriting is Williams at her rawest: straight, no filter. The majority of the songs are narrowly focused and personal, though the cut she shares here with the Voice is one of a handful of exceptions.