Like som many, I discovered Lucinda Williams when she released the fantastic album, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. I went to the record store (yes, we actually did that in the old days) and bought as many of her albums as I could find. There were four albums before Car Wheels.., great albums, I love them all. Since then I’ve awaited all Lucinda Williams albums with great exitement. She’s always good, most of the time she’s great.

Today she’s 60, happy birthday Lucinda Williams!

Lucinda Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American rock, folk, blues, and country music singer and songwriter.

She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album, Lucinda Williams. This release featured “Passionate Kisses,” a song later recorded by Mary Chapin Carpenter which garnered Lucinda her first Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1994.

Car Wheels ON A Gravel Road (live):

Known for working slowly, Lucinda recorded and released only one other album in the next several years (Sweet Old World in 1992) before her greatest success came in 1998 with Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. This album presented a broader scope of songs that fused rock, blues, country, and Americana into a more distinctive style that still managed to remain consistent and commercial in sound. It went gold and earned Lucinda another Grammy while being universally acclaimed by critics. Since Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, she has released a string of albums that have also been critically acclaimed, though none have sold in the numbers of her 1998 breakthrough. She was also named “America’s best songwriter” by TIME magazine in 2002. (Wikipedia, READ MORE)

Her wonderful song about Blaze Foley, Drunken Angel:

I could have chosen Car Wheels as today’s album, but insted I’ve made a playlist of my top 20 Lucinda Williams songs. It was easy to find 20 songs, but it was hard  to limit myself to just 25. Anyway here it is.

Hallgeir’s top 25 Lucinda Williams songs:

PS: I have a confession, Car wheels is no longer my favourite Lucinda Williams album, that honor goes to World Without Tears.

Other 26. January:

• Edward Lodewijk “Eddie” Van Halen (born January 26, 1955) is a Dutch guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Eddie Van Halen is commonly known for his innovative performing and recording styles in blues-based rock, tapping, intense solos and high frequency feedback; he is also known for energetic and acrobatic stage performances. The All Music Guide has described him as “Second to only Jimi Hendrix…undoubtedly one of the most influential, original, and talented rock guitarists of the 20th century.”.  He is ranked 8th in Rolling Stone’s 2011 list of the Top 100 guitarists.
  

• John Avery Lomax (September 23, 1867 – January 26, 1948) was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist and folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk songs. He was father to Alan Lomax, also a distinguished collector of folk music.

• Bob Dylan plays 2 concerts at Hofheinz Pavilion – Houston, Texas in 1974

– Hallgeir