Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams is one of the most celebrated singer-songwriters of her generation -- but she didn't have her commercial breakthrough until the age of 45. For the past 30 years, Williams has channeled her perspective as a proud but vulnerable Southern female into a string of stellar albums, weaving elements of rock, country, folk and blues together.

In 2023, at age 70, she published a memoir about her groundbreaking career, "Don't Tell Anyone the Secrets I Told You," coinciding with the release of her 16th studio album, "Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart." The same year, Forbes magazine named her to their "50 Over 50" list.

Throughout her career, Williams has released a string of albums earning critical acclaim and commercial success, winning three Grammy Awards. Time magazine named her "America's best songwriter"; Rolling Stone called her one of the greatest songwriters of all time, and she was named to their "100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time" list. Additionally, Williams has been inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame.

Since her breakthrough disc, "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," sealed her reputation, she has frequently made guest appearances on other artists' albums. She has recorded with Elvis Costello, Nanci Griffith, John Prine, and Steve Earle, among others. Her songs have also been covered by Patty Loveless, who scored a Top Ten country hit with "The Night's Too Long;" Mary-Chapin Carpenter, who recorded a Grammy-winning version of her song, "Passionate Kisses"; and Tom Petty, whose recording of Williams' "Change the Locks" appears on the soundtrack to the 1996 movie "She's the One."

The daughter of a poet father, who was both a college professor and Hank Williams zealot, Williams grew up listening to classic country. As a teenager, she discovered the writing of Southern novelist Flannery O'Connor, whom she cites as a major influence on her songwriting.