Lucinda Williams’s songs are like a catalog of intimate sufferings, mostly of the romantic kind—suicidal poets, unfulfilled loves, long, sad drives across the South—which she represents in meticulous detail. And there’s always an edge of determination to her thoughtful, scratchy voice, whether she’s singing with anger or utter desperation; you feel the energy of a torrent pushed through a pinhole.

Born in Louisiana in 1953, Williams grew up sitting in on the poetry workshops and lectures of her father, the poet Miller Williams. She spent a few decades traveling around the country, playing in bars and on the street, and developed a following before her first commercial success, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998), which was her fifth album. Since that time, she has released six more albums, has been named “America’s Best Songwriter” by Time magazine, and has been nominated for Grammy Awards in country, pop, folk, rock, and Americana.