Trying a Different Road

Lucinda Williams’ last album, 1998’s “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” shifted the acclaimed singer-songwriter from cult darling to widespread commercial success and even a Grammy, for contemporary folk album. But the “Car Wheels” experience wasn’t all rosy for the 48-year-old Nashville resident. During work on that album, her longtime drummer, Donald Lindley, died of lung cancer and her band of 10 years broke up. .

Her new album, “Essence,” is due Tuesday, and the recording process was a lot less traumatic. (See review, Page 60)

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Question: How did the commercial success of “Car Wheels” change things for you?

Answer: It didn’t really change anything for me inside, as a person. . . . But definitely my public profile has increased quite a bit. One thing I’ve noticed that I don’t like is people paying too much attention to my private life--gossipy kinds of stuff, and that bothers me a lot. I don’t look at the Internet stuff much because I don’t have a computer. But one time I glanced at some of it, and it amazes me the [fans’] attention to detail. If I change my hair color, or whatever I do, it just ends up on there--what I’m wearing or who I’m with. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a really big star and not have any privacy. I would hate that.

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Q: Most of the songs for “Essence” reportedly came out of a relatively short burst of songwriting last year--that’s pretty unusual for you, isn’t it?

A: Yes--I always wait until I have enough songs ready before I start to record. The songs have to be good enough, and it’s hard for me to come up with that many songs that I feel are all good enough. So it’s amazing to me that I came up with this many in such a short period.

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Q: Many of them have a different feel too--not so many of the rich narratives you’re known for, but more what you’ve called “internal songs.” Was that a conscious shift in your approach to songwriting?

A: It’s just something that evolved that way. When I first finished these new ones, I was questioning that myself, because they did seem to come so easily. I wondered whether they stood up to my own standard, because some of them are simpler lyrically. I was kind of concerned about that--I’m used to laboring over the songs. . . . But it’s kind of liberating at the same time.... The groove factor is a departure for me. Most of my other stuff has depended more on the lyrics to get songs across. This time I let go a little bit, and freed myself up to play around with groove tempos and the mood of the song and the melodies. But it seems to be working.

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Q: “Get Right With God” has a real scratchy, country gospel-blues feel--did that grow out of performances you did last summer with the North Mississippi All Stars?

A: That’s definitely the vibe I was going for. Do you know Jesse Mae Hemphill and R.L. Burnside? I was just trying to write something that would sound like a really old song. In fact, while we were recording it, [drummer] Don Heffington asked me where I’d gotten that song--who I’d learned it from. He couldn’t believe I’d written it.

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Q: That song is part of an interesting stretch that closes the album on a strongly religious note--what’s that about?

A: I’ve been sort of delving into it the same way I do a lot of other stuff. Both my grandfathers were Methodist ministers, so I have that in my background. I’ve also been influenced a lot by Bob Dylan’s writing and his use of Bible imagery, even before his Christian stuff. In “Highway 61” he was singing, “God said to Abraham kill me a son.” And Leonard Cohen has done that a lot. It doesn’t have as much to do with religion as the lyrical nature. I started reading the Bible as an interesting piece of literature, because I’m always looking for stuff I can use in my writing to make it more interesting.

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Q: How is it to be living in Nashville these days?

A: I don’t really belong here. You know how that is--you just get situated in a place. I’ve got some good friends here, and that keeps you in a place.... Ultimately it’s not where I want to stay. I feel drawn more to the Southwestern area. I lived out there in L.A. for six years and I enjoyed it. I miss a lot of it. Nashville is pretty suburban still. And there’s no good Mexican food here.