Album Review: Lucinda Williams - Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone

Lucinda Williams returns with a 20-song double album showcasing her unabashed skills in both songcraft and delivery. It’s tonally diverse – blues, honky-tonk and classic rock flourishes colour the Muscle Shoals-imbued country-soul template – and her laconic drawl is more emotive than ever. The songs are rife with oft-bitter life experience (Cold Day In Hell, Wrong Number, Big Mess) but a ray of light permeates the bleakness at intervals. An album that’s timeless, heartfelt and beautiful despite the omnipresent despair and regret, in that finest country tradition.