Lucinda WilliamsCar Wheels on a Gravel Road

Scuffed-boot country, bottleneck blues, and barroom rock with no reverb, just the natural creak of the room. 'Drunken Angel' is an anthemic portrait of a doomed musician built on the late Blaze Foley, equal parts tender and furious. 'Lake Charles' aches with past-tense storytelling that catches in your throat. Three producers, several studios, and years of agony went into it, and it won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Dust on the speakers, heartbreak in the grooves. Play it twice.