Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

ASIN: B000007Q8K

Track Listings

1. Right in Time

2. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

3. 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten

4. Drunken Angel

5. Concrete and Barbed Wire

6. Lake Charles

7. Can't Let Go

8. I Lost It

9. Metal Firecracker

10. Greenville

11. Still I Long for Your Kiss

12. Joy

13. Jackson

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 1998
Six years in the making, Car Wheels somehow lives up to its lofty expectations because of Williams's direct songwriting and her wonderfully unaffected vocals. With assistance from cohorts such as Steve Earle, Williams uses the acoustic accents of Dobros, mandolins, slide guitars, and accordions to add color to her grooves, whispers, and rumbles. Her lyrics are undisguised as she presents to us the travelogue of her memory. We can't wait for 2004! --Marc Greilsamer

Amazon.com essential recording
Lucinda Williams makes this whole music thing seem so simple: Write in plain language about the people and places that crowd your memory; add subtle flavors of a mandolin here, a Dobro there, perhaps an accordion or slide guitar; above all, sing as honestly and naturally as you can. Of course, it took her six years to achieve this simplicity, an amazing achievement considering the number of knobs that were turned. Her exquisite voice moans and groans and slips and slides--she delivers a polished tone in a coarse manner. On the superb "Concrete and Barbed Wire," soft acoustic guitars are punctuated by electric slide, accordion, mandolin, and Steve Earle's harmony. Williams's deeply personal stories are matched with bluesy rumbles, raunchy grooves, and plaintive whispers. The entire Deep South is reduced to a sleepy small town filled with ex-lovers, dive bars, and endless gravel roads. --Marc Greilsamer

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Tracks:

Right In Time
Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
Drunken Angel
Concrete And Barbed Wire
Lake Charles
Can't Let Go
I Lost It
Metal Firecracker
Greenville
Still I Long For Your Kiss
Joy
Jackson

Amazon.com's Best of 1998

Six years in the making, Car Wheels somehow lives up to its lofty expectations because of Williams's direct songwriting and her wonderfully unaffected vocals. With assistance from cohorts such as Steve Earle, Williams uses the acoustic accents of Dobros, mandolins, slide guitars, and accordions to add color to her grooves, whispers, and rumbles. Her lyrics are undisguised as she presents to us the travelogue of her memory. We can't wait for 2004! --Marc Greilsamer

Amazon.com essential recording

Lucinda Williams makes this whole music thing seem so simple: Write in plain language about the people and places that crowd your memory; add subtle flavors of a mandolin here, a Dobro there, perhaps an accordion or slide guitar; above all, sing as honestly and naturally as you can. Of course, it took her six years to achieve this simplicity, an amazing achievement considering the number of knobs that were turned. Her exquisite voice moans and groans and slips and slides--she delivers a polished tone in a coarse manner. On the superb "Concrete and Barbed Wire," soft acoustic guitars are punctuated by electric slide, accordion, mandolin, and Steve Earle's harmony. Williams's deeply personal stories are matched with bluesy rumbles, raunchy grooves, and plaintive whispers. The entire Deep South is reduced to a sleepy small town filled with ex-lovers, dive bars, and endless gravel roads. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews:

Lustful.......2007-06-09

If you're looking for a nice soothing CD to "set the mood"...then this CD album by Lucinda Williams should do the job quite nicely. There are a couple of songs that are just a bit "too country" for me...but the rest of the CD more than makes up for this minor deficiency.

Lucinda Williams is my ELVIS!.......2007-04-12

I am BLOWN AWAY by this album!

Only once or twice if you're lucky in a lifetime if you come across an artist with this level of creativity and talent.

"Too Cool to be Forgotten" - Hey Hey....this song will be remade by future generations of Rockers.

"On the way to Jackson" - A fantastic song that sounds like it's been around since pioneer days and yet it had just been CREATED by Lucinda!

"Lake Charles" - Oh my! What a DELICIOUS SONG!

I can't say ENOUGH how FANTASTIC this whole album is and I don't like writing long-winded reviews...but to give it justice - I would have to create a review as big as anyone's viewing area. Every song on this album is INCREDIBLE!

Every song...something that future generations will re-do. Way ahead of it's time in creativity and originality.

P.S. I've read a lot of people comparing Lucinda Williams with Patty Griffin. Hands down. No contest. Lucinda RULES though I also love Patty Griffin incredibly well.

Grreat Transaction - Fast.......2007-02-14

Recommend this seller highly - quick delivery and CD was perfect.

A solid 5 stars.......2007-01-20

This has become one of my desert island CDs - right along with Joni Mitchell's "Hejira", Bob Dylan's "Desire", Stevie Wonder's "(well, ALL of his 1970's music), Emmylou Harris' "Wrecking Ball", Neil Young's Crazy Horse stuff... The song that really gets me is "2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten" - for that incredibly liquid guitar sound. It's not my favorite song on the CD - that is "Lake Charles", but hey - the next time I listen I'll probably have another favorite song. Every single selection on this CD is a masterpiece of the genre - there is not a single throwaway track in sight. This is roots soul music - anyone who has ever lived on a farm, hitchhiked across the countryside, found themselves alone and come to terms with their own sense of being, been hammered by the storms of life and love - would find a lot to like about this music. Her voice is not polished, it is not a five octave mindblower, it is not smooth or pitch-perfect. What Lucinda William's voice is though is... real, powerful, compelling and very sexy. This vocalist writes songs perfectly fitted to her instrument, and then creates a sound that washes over me in a hundred layers all at once. That's damn fine music in my book...

Excellent CD from Lucinda Williams.......2007-01-09

The CD Car Wheels on a Gravel Road contents of rather good music numbers, many of the numbers are exceptionel good. E.G, Car Wheels... Joy and Still I Long for Your Kiss.

Average customer rating:

Deluxe in every way
Great Concert in South Philly
A great album gets a polish
Nice extras, horrible sound
Yes, clearly worth trading up

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Lucinda Williams
Manufacturer: Island / Mercury
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000IMUY42
Release Date: 2006-10-24

Tracks:

Right In Time
Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
Drunken Angel
Concrete And Barbed Wire
Lake Charles
Can't Let Go
I Lost It
Metal Firecracker
Greenville
Still I Long For Your Kiss
Joy
Jackson
Down The Big Road Blues
Out Of Touch
Still I Long For Your Kiss

Tracks:

Pineola
Something About What Happens When We Talk
Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
Metal Firecracker
Right In Time
Drunken Angel
Greenville
Still I Long For Your Kiss
2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
Can't Let Go
Hot Blood
Changed The Locks
Joy

Amazon.com

This 1998 Grammy-winning release--Lucinda Williams's popular breakthrough--certainly merits the double-disc "deluxe edition" treatment. And it's hard to find significant fault with anything here: the remastered version of the original album, the second-disc live performance from that year featuring guitarists Kenny Vaughn and Bo Ramsey, and the smattering of outtakes (highlighted by a slower, sadder version of "Out of Touch" than the one Williams ended up releasing). Yet the set misses a glorious opportunity to document one of the more laborious (and notorious) recording projects, one that saw Williams switch cities, studios, and producers three times before she was satisfied with the results. And while the results confirm her judgment, fans would likely find it fascinating to hear a lot more takes from the original Austin sessions (featuring accordion master Flaco Jimenez and keyboardist Ian McLagan) or outtakes from the Nashville sessions with producer Steve Earle, before Williams overhauled the project in Los Angeles with Springsteen keyboardist Roy Bittan. Such a set could have put a revelatory spotlight on the creative process that resulted in an album widely regarded as Williams's masterpiece; instead, this release is more like souvenir snapshots. --Don McLeese

Customer Reviews:

Deluxe in every way.......2007-06-28

Lucinda Williams may be notoriously slow in releasing albums, but such laborious love for her craft is evident in her choice to reissue Car Wheels on a Gravel Road as part of a new deluxe edition set. The set, which combines a remastered version of the original album and live cuts from her performance at Penn's Landing during the WXPN Singer Songwriter Festival, is a collector's dream. Outtakes and new versions of favorite tunes done live make the investment worthwhile. As always, however, Williams own gravelly, soulful tone combined with realistic lyrics ("conversation with you was like a drug.../cause there's something about what happens when we talk") easily remind us of our faults, our successes and why we love her in the first place. She could be us, singing about the troubles in life without bemoaning them or harping too long on the choices that brought them. Her musical gestures resonate similarly--perfect chords, never a note too long or inappropriately placed. Beautiful tone combined with the hearty ability of this songstress lulls you into retrospective bliss. This double CD set can bring you up, remind you why you're down and can easily please a crowd of diverse fans.

Great Concert in South Philly.......2007-03-15

Up from DC to visit a woman I'd just started dating and she suggested going to the WXPN free festival being held right along the Delaware. Southern Culture on the Skids were just finishing, but we were there to see the sometime associate of Steve Earle, who my friend adored.

The next act was nothing short of revelatory. The guitars dueled to incredible intensity, the songs were simply brilliant, and I was completely enamored by the singer in jeans and cowboy hat. My friend was a little put out by my rapt attention, but I just couldn't help it. Lucinda Williams was performing the most magical show I had seen in more than a decade.

I went from zero to all of her stuff within a couple of days and caught a few more shows up through Essence. During that stretch, I know of no stronger composer and performer; and her rendition of Masters of War was enough to make you want to take to the streets.

Anyway, great album, great show, great artist in her prime. You'd be hard pressed to do better.

A great album gets a polish.......2007-01-30

Lucinda's quintessential album gets a bit of a production polish with this reissue that falls just short of a 10th anniversary. Yes, Disc One of this edition contains the original material from "Car Wheels," but, in my opinion, the songs sound MUCH, MUCH better - crisper, clearer, with greater definition. There was nothing wrong with the original production, but this one just pops out of my headphones and car stereo speakers with a bit more oomph.

Three added-value tracks follow "Jackson," the album closer. "Out of Touch" ended up on her "Essence" CD, and I think that version is the better one, but this early attempt is still interesting to hear. "Down the Big Road Blues" is a tremendous tune that did not make the final cut, probably because it's more of a pure blues number, unlike the material that did make it. And who can resist any version of "Still I Long For Your Kiss"? This music is sexy as hell!

"Car Wheels" is one of my favorite albums, and ranks alongside "World Without Tears" as my favorite Lucinda record. She's a phenomenal songwriter, able to craft deeply personal lyrics that have universal value, and has a voice to rival Bono's in its uniqueness. (Just as you'd recognize Bono's voice almost instantly, so Lucinda's is easily recognized.) She sparkles on the second disc of this release, recorded live in Philadelphia back in 1998. Lucinda and her band burn through a great set that includes "Joy," "Hot Blood," "Changed the Locks" and "2 Kool 2 B Forgotten."

I'm not a big fan of reissues, but this is no retread, this is the ultimate version of a fantastic album.

Nice extras, horrible sound.......2007-01-28

Add one more title to the list of unfortunate recent remastering jobs: Lucinda Williams' "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road".

I listened to the new version of "Car Wheels" (one of my two favorite Lucinda albums) through headphones for the first time last night and couldn't get beyond the second track. By now, this is a familiar story - anemic bass, too high volume levels that distort at normal listening levels, and shrill, harsh sound. It also sounds hollow and "phasey", which to me suggests low-bit-rate mp3s. There's no clipping, but every track is mastered at the maximum peak level (something which shouldn't happen given the variety exhibited in these songs).

If you've still got the original CD, hold on to it because that sounds wonderful, with warmth, texture, visceral bass. It rocks.

What happened to this disc answers one question. When it comes to reissues of older albums, I've often wished that the remasters could be compared to the original tapes, or even to an LP. Maybe the warmth and texture in the original CDs were actually the byproduct of analog distortion and deteriorating tapes. But when Cream's "Disraeli Gears" and Lucinda's "Car Wheels" have undergone almost exactly the same changes, that tells me the people doing the remastering are just willfully altering it to their own peculiar tastes. (I should have been forewarned by how badly the Universal "deluxe edition" of The Who's great debut album turned out. Lost Highway has denied having anything to do with this reissue, so I assume Universal is again to blame.)

Reviewing the "sound" of this reissue on a car stereo or portable player is missing the point. Does anyone even know what a well-recorded and reproduced piece of music sounds like anymore?

Yes, clearly worth trading up.......2007-01-06

The original Car Wheels is a five-star album if there ever was one. This landmark work is beyond question on of the finest albums of the 1990s. But you probably already know that. But does it really sound better, as there is some debate in this review section? (And the original is hardly shabby.) First, the difference in my pretty good car system (VW Monsoon, so nothing truly special) was not suble, if that's any help. If you have anything approaching a high-end system in your home or car, this is an easy call. The instruments just jump out of the speakers in a way the original mastering did not. Second, the added songs are certainly worth it. Third, the live set is mandatory if you love Lucinda; it was a great period of her live performances. So there you have it. And if you're new to Lucinda, it is hard to figure any down side to buying this. Get it.

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