NASHVILLE Lucinda Williams

Cowboys & Indians: Congrats on your latest album, Good Souls Better Angels. Several of the songs sound dark and retrospective, like they’re singularly well-suited for the pandemic era. Yet our two favorites — “Big Black Train” and “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” — actually have some underlying optimism, if you listen closely enough.

Those are two of my favorite ones, too. Whenever I sing “Big Black Train,” I feel like I’m going to cry. To me, it brings back that feeling like when