Ramblin'

Personnel: Lucinda Williams (vocals, 12-string guitar); John Grimaudo (6-string guitar).
Recorded at Malaco Studios, Jackson, Mississippi in September 1978. Includes liner notes by John Morthland.
Originally released on Folkways Records in 1978, Lucinda Williams' debut album consists of nothing but acoustic country blues in the tradition of the Louisiana Delta where the singer/songwriter was raised. Not that Williams had the blues' traditional impoverished upbringing-her father is an academic and a well-regarded poet. RAMBLIN' works, however, because of Williams' obvious mastery of the country blues form and her already impressive instrumental and vocal skills.
Williams' voice and 12-string guitar are almost the album's only features, with second guitarist John Grimaudo adding unobtrusive accompaniment to a handful of tracks. Williams' taste runs to the obscure here. Of these 14 songs, the most familiar to those who aren't blues historians are Hank Williams' "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" and the gospel mainstay "Great Speckled Bird." The rest are blues classics of varying degrees of obscurity, with no original songs but plenty of passion and soul. An excellent traditional country blues album.