By JJT (written for ThinkChristian.net)

On Ghosts of Highway 20, Lucinda Williams wavers between utter darkness and non-denominational Gospel light.

There may be no artist better qualified to serve as a plumb line for the continually evolving Americana music scene than Lucinda Williams. As such, it is no surprise that in this era of digital singles and streaming playlists, the newly independent troubadour has released The Ghosts of Highway 20, the second of two consecutive double albums. It is an excellent collection of sparse, dimly lit musical gems that breathe in the dust of life and exhale world-weary grace and candor.

After recently launching her own imprint, Williams seems to have hit a prolific streak. In fact, she has released more new songs in the last two years than in the previous 10 combined. The songs on Ghosts feel as if they are a continuation of the work begun with 2014’s 20-song set, Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone. Yes, at 63 Lucinda Williams is most certainly in the zone. Her lyrics and her voice blend into a seamless unit that effortlessly moves from lazy and decrepit to collar-grabbing swagger. As a writer and a vocalist, she has never sounded better.

Williams’ frequent Gospel incantations are simple, urgent and utterly believable, if not resoundingly evangelical. Hers is a theology of survival, with little room for minutiae. Her world is full of users, abusers, crooks and cons, all hitchhiking through a creation gone sideways. In the background, however, the tiniest flicker of light casts off the overwhelming darkness. With Williams, the darkness and light, the spirit and the bone, the junkie and the judge, are all locked into a slow, lilting dance. As she sings these stories of pain and determination, her band crafts lush, spacious, musical backdrops. You can hear the air moving around the instruments. Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell never hits a cliché lick as he weaves his magic. If Buddy Miller and Daniel Lanois were able to become one person for a couple of hours, they could not create anything better than what Frisell pulls off here.

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