Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
“IT’S a special song,” says Lucinda Williams. “It came to me almost like a dream.” Making the 1998 album on which “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road” became the totemic title track, however, was something closer to a nightmare. “The album was a total clusterfuck,” laughs Williams. “Let’s go ahead and say it!” Featuring a walk-on cast that includes Steve Earle, E Street Band member Roy Bittan, Rick Rubin and Emmylou Harris, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road burned through six years, four producers, three cities, two record labels, and engendered a bitter split with Williams’ long-term musical partner, Gurf Morlix. Even when it was done, a series of legal tussles delayed its release for a year.
When it eventually emerged, the album won a Grammy and was almost immediately hailed as a landmark in Americana. An evocative scrapbook of people and places, its reputation has only grown with the years. “That album brought it all to a head,” says Charlie Sexton, who played guitar on the record. “It’s like her first novel, really, where it all came together in the writing.”
A crunchy blend of country, rock and R&B, the title track provides a lightning rod for the album’s themes. “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road” is a deeply personal Southern Gothic travelogue, humming with memory and loss,
