Lucinda Williams

On this, her ninth album, the Louisianan renaissance woman is rocking more than she's country-ing, paying tribute to one of the greats (AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top") and spitting words in her awesome drawl. Perhaps Little Honey is not as emotionally ravaged as Car Wheels was, but few artists can ever hope to pull off that sort of personal exposure once, let alone be expected to do it again. "Little Rock Star" is Little Honey's "Drunken Angel," but "Honey Bee" is all-new territory.

"Is your death wish stronger than you are?" Lucinda Williams asks in "Little Rock Star," a
cautionary song swathed in guitar noise that someone should instant-message to Pete
Doherty, Ryan Adams and Amy Winehouse. While it shows that the 55-year-old
barbed-wire country singer is wary of rock's trappings, Little Honey proves she's still
crushed out on the music. On "Real Love," amid boogie-rock riffing, she alternat... More >