Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, released in 1988, by Rough Trade Records. An alternative country and roots rock record about the complexities of romantic relationships, Lucinda Williams was met with widespread critical acclaim upon release and has since been viewed as a leading work in the development of the Americana movement. The album was produced by Williams, with Dusty Wakeman and Gurf Morlix, and features the first appearance of "Passionate Kisses", a song later recorded by Mary Chapin Carpenter for her album Come On Come On (1992), which garnered Williams her first Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1994. Music and lyrics Before Williams was signed by Rough Trade Records, she had struggled shopping her demo of the album: "The L.A. people said, 'It's too country for rock.' The Nashville people said, 'It's too rock for country.'" Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis said of signing Williams in 1987, "We were big fans of the Southern literary tradition. We recognized that Lucinda was writing serious songs, but with the wit and humor of real rock'n'roll." According to Spin magazine's Keith Harris, Lucinda Williams has since been classified as alternative country, while WFUV's Claudia Marshall called it a roots rock record that fuses country, blues, folk, and rock music. With its synthesis of folk, rock, country blues, and Cajun music, Nigel Williamson of Uncut said it may be seen as one of the earliest records in the alternative country scene. Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice, called it a blues record and remarked that Williams plays "joyously uncountrypolitan blues". Greg Kot wrote in the Chicago Tribune, "like the music, which drifts between the lonesome worlds of country and blues, the lyrics can't be pinned down: They speak of the ambivalence that shades love and loss."