CMT Edge: 10 Essential Alt-Country Albums (From the 90s)

http://www.cmtedge.com/2014/07/11/10-essential-alt-country-albums/

Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998)

It took Lucinda Williams six long years to make Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. During that time, the notorious perfectionist fought with Gurf Morlix and Steve Earle, abandoned several sessions and scrapped numerous recordings, leaving fans to wonder if she’d ever release another album at all. It was worth the wait. A country-rock landmark, the album is a marvel of plainspoken lyricism that finds poetry in everyday experience — names carved into a bar table, the “smell of coffee eggs and bacon” and the town of Lake Charles, Louisiana. But it’s that indelible warble of a voice — instantly recognizable and always welcome — that imbues those details with so much poignant life.