Little Honey

The long waits for Lucinda Williams' third and fifth albums-- eight years for Lucinda Williams and six for Car Wheels on a Gravel Road-- have become the defining story of her career. During those lengthy intervals she established herself as a perfectionist who took her own sweet time making records and tweaked every aspect until it met with her highly strict requirements, which of course she never explained to anyone else. She worked intuitively rather than scientifically-- the songs had to feel right. But those albums fully justified both the waits and her pec uliar particularity: Williams' self-titled album expressed her inner desires and uncertainties so comfortably that country and blues felt like second skins, and Car Wheels is a tough and tender travelogue. Neither sounds overworked; she toiled for nearly a decade on each to sound completely off the cuff.

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