Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone (3LP)

As a rule, you can divide music into three categories -- the kind that aims for the head, the kind that aims for the heart and the kind that aims for the hips. Forging two of those connections at once is pretty impressive, but connecting on all three? That's a rare accomplishment indeed, one that Lucinda Williams manages on her 11th studio album, Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone.

Lucinda Williams has been maneuvering down a path all her own for more than three decades now, emerging from Lake Charles, Louisiana (a town with a rich tradition in all of America's indigenous music, from country to the blues) having been imbued with a "culturally rich, economically poor" worldview.

This past decade has brought much in the way of musical and personal growth for Williams, evidenced on albums like West (2007), which All Music Guide called "flawless…destined to become a classic" and Blessed (2011), which the Los Angeles Times dubbed "a dynamic, human, album, one that's easy to fall in love with." Those albums retained much of Williams' trademark melancholy and southern Gothic starkness, but also exuded more rays of light and hope - hues that were no doubt imparted by a more soothing personal life, as well as a more settled creative space.

Those vibes come to the fore once again on Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone. While she stays very much rooted in the here and now, Williams also conjures up the spirit of classic '70s country soul. The resulting warmth of tone gives the album a late-night front-porch vibe -- one that could be accompanied by either a tall glass of lemonade or something a little stronger, all the better to let the sounds envelope the listener like a blanket of dewy air