Lucinda Williams Is Ready for Her Close-Up Now
James Hunter, New York Observer, 29 June 1998
THE COGNOSCENTI are wigging. "How did a 45-year-old 'neurotic diva' with one foot in Faulkner's South and one foot in Garth's make the year's best album?" wonders a headline in Spin. "Perfect," declares critic Robert Christgau in the July 9-23 Rolling Stone. "Courtney Love and Alanis Morissette could learn a few things from [her]," prescribes Details. After June 30, when Lucinda Williams' Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (Mercury) appears, publications with shorter lead times will concur with these exceptionally pleased magazines. Here, without a doubt, is the print media's pop record phenom of the summer of '98.
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