Essence by Lucinda Williams

Essence, Lucinda Williams' sixth studio album, came out on June 5, 2001, and after the sprawling rock-country-blues sweep of Car Wheels on a Gravel Road it's a deliberate step down into the shadows. The mood is downbeat and hushed, the arrangements spare and intimate, and Williams' weathered, drawling voice sits right up front, close enough to feel her breath.

The title track smolders with a slow-burning ache, and "Get Right With God" won her the Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, one of three nominations the album picked up in 2002, alongside Best Contemporary Folk Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Essence". It was a hit with critics and with buyers too, giving her a first Top 40 album when it opened at No. 28 on the Billboard 200 and selling 336,000 copies in the US by 2008.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.