Pitchfork Review中文拙译：Lucinda Williams-Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

by Jenn Pelly

Contributing Editor

Folk/Country

October 28 2018

When nothing but time can still the pain, a Lucinda Williams song will see you through. In her dry Louisiana drawl, she sings plaintively of abusive childhoods and bad marriages; of drunken bar brawls and suicidal poets; of her own heart that shatters and mends and shatters again, like a puzzle, down-and-out. A magnet for the kind of unrequited love that seems to stop the Earth from turning, Williams persists. Then she’s onto the next town.

常言道时间能够抚平一切伤痛，一首Lucinda Williams亦能有此疗效。借着她那沙哑磁性的路易斯安那南方口音，Williams在歌中悲戚地长吟着各种人生苦痛：充满磨难的童年，疮痍满目的婚姻，酒吧的酒徒斗殴，自杀的民谣诗人，再加上她自己那颗谜一般的，破碎又修复，修复又破碎的潦倒的心。这种不得善终的单相情思像巨大的磁场一样使得Williams的世界无法运转。于是她将情伤的愈合寄希望于漫漫的人生旅途上。

Williams was born a rolling stone. Her late father, the poet Miller Williams, was a college professor and the family moved often, to Mexico and Chile and a dozen Southern towns. After Williams was expelled from one New Orleans high school in part for refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in protest of Vietnam, dad gave her a list of 100 great books to read instead. (Williams’ family of civil rights activists and union workers passed on that spirit of dissent as well.) Miller’s profession brought a young Lucinda into contact with Allen Ginsberg, Charles Bukowski, and, most influentially, Flannery O’Connor. Williams would never let go of her O’Connor-inspired fantasy of writing a Great Southern Novel. Instead, Williams set hers to music, becoming an itinerant Southern Gothic beat.

Williams的一生可谓是坎坷又曲折。她已故的父亲MillerWilliams，是诗人也是一名大学教授，却并没有使其家庭逃脱颠沛流离的命运——墨西哥、智利以及十余南部城镇皆有Williams一家的生活痕迹。后来Williams因拒绝接受鼓吹反越思想的效忠誓词而被新奥尔良高级中学开除，父亲就给了她一张列有100本必读著作的书单作为自学材料。（她的这一反抗精神自然继承于身为民权拥护者和工会成员的父母。）得益于Miller的人脉关系，年少的Lucinda有幸结识了同是诗人的Allen Ginsberg, Charles Bukowski，还有对她而言最重要的人生导师Flannery O’Connor。Williams的写作构思深受O’Connor南方哥特式小说的影响，只不过她在其中融入了音乐的节拍和韵律。

At 18, she left home and belonged nowhere. There was no alternative country in 1974, no alternative rock, no Americana, and in at least one Austin bar where Williams hoped to perform, no room for another “chick singer.” Nashville told her she was too rock’n’roll. Los Angeles said she was too country. Galvanized by Bob Dylan, Williams’ songwriting evoked his poetic ambition, Bruce Springsteen’s every-people, Joni Mitchell’s confessionalism. The lonesomeness of jukebox country met the darkness of an outlaw. The whiskey-stained tenacity of the blues was spiked with the honey of AM pop. She released two albums, a 1979 covers collection Ramblin and 1980’s thrilling Happy Woman Blues, but did not catch a break until a punk label, Rough Trade, came along and signed her (making her labelmates with Stiff Little Fingers, on the one hand; Leadbelly, on the other). Lucinda Williams, in 1988, was her third album and first masterpiece. Ten years later, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road was her second.

1974年，18岁的Williams开始独自漂泊。那时的乐坛没有所谓的另类乡村，没有所谓的另类摇滚，也没有Americana等等流派。纳什维尔的酒吧说她唱起歌来摇滚范十足却失去了乡村乐的本质，洛杉矶的酒吧说她是一个不折不扣的乡村女伶但太过清汤寡水不够吸引人，于是老板们对这么一个初出茅庐的年轻歌手纷纷表示了婉拒。Williams的作词颇有Bob Dylan的风骨，但她同时也激发了Dylan对诗词的艺术追求。甚至是Bruce Springsteen的普世主义和Joni Mitchell的自省式创作，都能在Williams的歌词中觉察一二。就像是村舍唱机的寂寥沾染上亡命之徒的罪恶，当包裹着威士忌辛香的布鲁斯泥泞混杂了AM pop电台金曲的轻松与甜蜜，这便是Lucinda Williams。在分别于1979年和1980年发行了翻唱合辑Ramblin和惬意愉快的Happy Woman Blues后，马不停蹄继续工作的Williams与朋克厂牌Rough Trade结缘并签约。时至1988年，她的同名专也就是她的第三张专辑Lucinda Williams，成为她的第一张杰作。而第二张，正是两年后发行的Car Wheels on a Gravel Road。

Williams was by then 45 and over two decades into her career at the fringes: touring small clubs, working with small labels, the life of an ’80s indie band more than a country star. She had released only four albums, filled with female characters who wanted it all—sung by a woman who wanted it all, too. The cool girls in Lucinda Williams songs were always packing up, pawning possessions, saving their tips to split town. There was “Maria,” in 1980, who was “wild and restless” and “born to roam.” There was the small-town waitress Sylvia, in 1988’s “The Night’s Too Long,” who resolutely declares “I’m moving away/I’m gonna get what I want.” “One Night Stand” was like a long-lost string-band ancestor of Liz Phair’s “F**k and Run.” These were mini-manifestos for a female life. Williams’ feminism rang with no stronger conviction than when she used the first-person to narrate her own desires: “Give me what I deserve cause it’s my right!” she longed on her eventual hit, “Passionate Kisses.”

不过Williams当时已经45岁，在过去的二十年间她的职业生涯一直处于一种边缘化状态：表演驻唱的都是些小俱乐部，与其合作的都是些小厂牌。若是一支出道未久的独立乐队倒也无妨，可对于一个已成气候的乡村明星来说，这种演艺生活未免有些寒酸。在此期间她仅仅发行了四张专辑，而在这四张专辑中，欲求不满的女性形象经常呼之欲出——毕竟Williams自己就是这么一个欲求不满的女人。她在歌中描写的往往都是些收拾好行囊，卖掉所有家当，带走一切财物远走他乡的酷女孩。比如在1980年推出的专辑Happy Woman Blues里的“Maria”中，她将人物形容为“疯狂而不安分”，“生来就是一个流浪者”。在1988年发行的同名专中，一首名叫“The Night’s Too Long”的歌里呈现出的是一位高呼“现在我要搬走啦/我将去别处收获我的梦想”的小镇女服务生。“One Night Stand”听上去像是Liz Phair“F**k and Run”的创作来源，只不过换了古色古香的弹拨乐器来演绎。这些都是充满女性主义的人生宣言。而Williams的女权主义在用直率了当的第一人称表达其欲望时体现得更为明显：“给我我应得的，这是我的权利！”她在“Passionate Kisses”中这样唱道。

If what she wanted was recognition, or fulfillment, or money—with Car Wheels, she got it. But the road there was almost comically difficult. Labels combusted in her wake: Rough Trade, Chameleon, and American all fell apart after she signed. RCA head Bob Buziak brought her to that label and then got fired. Williams and the music industry seemed allergic to one another. Lucinda Williams was an astonishing album—a classic from a renegade songwriter who never grew too hardened to admit “I just wanted to see you so bad”—but you couldn’t blame the greater public for being somewhat oblivious to it, since Rough Trade went bankrupt shortly after its release. Better-known fans kept the songs alive, with covers from the likes of Tom Petty, Patty Loveless, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. In 1997 the Los Angeles Times wrote: “It’s a good thing Williams has gotten a boost from others, because her own luck as a recording artist has been miserable.”

如果Williams想要的仅是名誉，金钱或是成就感，Car Wheels on a Gravel Road已经给予了她这一切，尽管这张专辑的诞生是如此来之不易： Rough Trade、Chameleon还有American Recordings，这些厂牌在和她签约后就相继瓦解衰落。RCA的时任总裁Bob Buziak将她引荐进公司后没多久便被炒了鱿鱼。Williams似乎与音乐产业有着水火不容的相斥性。但你不得不承认Lucinda Williams是一张惊艳的作品——一个“几经易主”的创作歌手居然在专辑的开场曲没皮没脸地高唱“见君一面，胜过思君千百遍”——但很少有听众对此感到诧异，毕竟在其发行后不久Rough Trade便宣告破产。好在Tom Petty、Patty Loveless以及Mary Chapin Carpenter这些知名粉丝的翻唱让这首歌的传唱度不那么感人。《洛杉矶时报》曾在1997年这样评论道：“很高兴看到Williams的作品能借助其他歌手的宣传获得更多关注，因为作为一个正统的录制歌手，她自己的运气实在是太糟糕了。”

The six-year gap between 1992’s Sweet Old World and Car Wheels is now charged with myth. By one account, Car Wheels took six tedious years, recorded three times in three cities with three different producers. In reality, there were two years in the studio, from 1995 to 1997, and one scrapped attempt. After Williams started the album with her longtime guitarist and co-producer Gurf Morlix, she felt it was “flat, lifeless, not up to par” and chose to re-record with country fixture Steve Earle and his production partner, Ray Kennedy. She liked their warm, scratchy old equipment and how prominently Kennedy had produced the vocals on Earle’s 1996 album, I Feel Alright. When time ran out, Williams finished the album in L.A. with Roy Bittan, a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, adding keyboards, accordions, guitar, and backing vocals. (Though Bittan claimed, “We redid most everything.”) A tornado hit Nashville just as Williams was mastering the finished analog tapes; someone had to race to the studio to save them.

从1992年的Sweet Old World到1998年的Car Wheels on a Gravel Road，这六年的空档期现在看来可谓是唱片制作历史上的一段佳话。简而言之，Car Wheels on a Gravel Road在这六年里先后经三位不同的制作人辗转至三个不同的地点录制了三次。事实上专辑的第一次录制是在1995年到1997年，在这两年里Williams的搭档是她长期的吉他手兼制作人Gurf Morlix。然而Williams觉得其成品听起来“很扁平，很生硬，达不到她的期望值”，于是不惜前功尽弃转而与乡村界的常青树Steve Earle及其制作伙伴Ray Kennedy重新录制。Williams喜欢他们听上去温和又粗糙的录制效果，也很欣赏Kennedy对Earles于1996年发行的专辑I Feel Alright的人声处理。最后Williams又赶赴洛杉矶，与Bruce Springsteen的东大街乐队成员Roy Bittan完成专辑剩下的键盘、手风琴、吉他以及伴唱部分。（Bittan声称他们当时推翻重制了先前的大部分内容。）顺便一提，Williams正欲处理已完成的模拟磁带时一场龙卷风突然袭击了纳什维尔，好在有人及时前往其录音室挽救了它们。

Unlike her hero, Dylan, Williams was mapping directions home. But home, never fixed to one place, was a profound in-between, more like the breeze that pushed her. Car Wheels is a raw, exquisite travelogue of her American South, from Jackson to Vicksburg, from West Memphis to Slidell, from the Louisiana Highway to Lake Pontchartrain. She searched for novelistic detail in back roads and cotton fields and dilapidated shacks. She played furious bluegrass stompers alongside clenching Memphis soul. Williams and an ex-lover drive through Lafayette and Baton Rouge “in a yellow Camino listening to Howlin Wolf.” Loretta, Hank, and ZZ Top are called out by name. “I see the whole thing like a pitch for a little movie,” Williams once said.

和她的偶像Dylan不同，Williams总是时刻在心中勾画回家的方向。但这个“家”的定义从来不局限于某个固定的地方。它更像是一件精神上的物什，像微风一样激励着Williams切莫停下行进的脚步。Car Wheels on a Gravel Road正是一本朴实却不失精致的旅行日记，其中记载了她从杰克逊到维克斯堡，从孟菲斯到斯莱德尔，从路易斯安那的公路再到庞恰特雷恩湖等等南方各地的见闻与心境。乡间小径、棉花地还有残破的棚户自然而然被她作为文学意象化为己用。前往孟菲斯追寻快乐和自我的旅程被她演绎为疾风骤雨般却仍保留着纯正兰草风味的硬摇滚。在其间Williams倾吐了她和前任驾着黄色的雪佛兰Camino穿越拉斐特和巴吞鲁日的浪漫回忆，路上遇到的狼群的嚎叫仿佛还回荡在耳畔。Loretta Lynn、Hank Williams、ZZ Top在歌曲中更是被直呼其名。“种种这些历历在目的事物，对我来说足已构成一部小电影。”Williams如是说。

But like Flannery O’Connor asserted, “Southern identity is not really connected with mockingbirds and beaten biscuits… an identity is not to be found on the surface.” Worlds exist beneath Car Wheels’ dazzling edges and monumental hooks. As “Concrete and Barbed Wire” evokes its thorny title, Williams wonders about human divides: “This wall is not real/How can it be real?” she sings, nearly cracking a yodel, a possible polemic. (The track was once covered on the compilation Sing Me Home: Songs Against Prison.) And Williams took bold risks: The opener “Right in Time” includes some of her most irreducible, eloquent poetry—“Not a day goes by I don’t think about you/You left your mark on me, it’s permanent, a tattoo”—before becoming a moaned narrative of a woman alone in bed, pleasuring herself. It is unbelievably sensual, a daydream.

但正如Flannery O’Connor认为：“艺术家即使挂上‘南方’的标签，并不一定要整天以知更鸟为欢，以烤松饼为乐——‘南方’气质不仅仅停留在表面。”的确，Car Wheels on a Gravel Road所营造的世界充满了让人流连忘返的景致与旋律。“Concrete And Barbed Wire”正如其标题暗示的那样沉重，Williams在其中探讨了人与人之间的隔阂和疏离：“隔绝我们的不是墙，这扇墙不过是人心所筑罢了。”不过她在歌中的真假声交替演唱方式或许会成为一个备受争议的地方。在开场曲“Right In Time”中Williams则显得更加激进——“想你千日万日，你的爱像纹身一样印在我心里永不褪去”可能是她最流畅洗练的诗句。以如此之达观安抚自己的思君之情，尽管最后也许还是难逃独守闺床空追忆的命运，这南柯一梦做得也算是够美满，够肉欲的了。

The honky-tonk title track is a sung memoir of an uncertain childhood, set in a Macon, Georgia kitchen with Loretta in the air, the smell of eggs and bacon lingering. At the whim of a disgruntled parent, a young Williams watches the world blur from a car window. When she sings of a “little bit of dirt mixed with tears,” she underscores the vulnerability and toughness at the heart of her character—the shy sense of human imperfection that makes her so heroic, unsettled already from a fixed place. There’s an innocence to this phrase, “Car wheels on a gravel road.” Williams’ melodic wording is sensitive to the bumps you feel, bumps that manifest as chaos and grief and troubled men: drunk men, self-destructive men, men in bands, men doing time, ghost men. Her voice cracks and quivers, allowing ugliness when her subject so demands.

酒吧乡村风格（honky-tonk）的标题曲讲述了Williams童年时期一段居无定所的迁徙生活。那是在佐治亚州梅肯市的一间厨房里，熏肉和炒蛋的香气，还有电台播放的Loretta Lynn的歌声充斥其间。然而父母的一声令下让小Williams只得乖乖跟着他们乘上了搬迁的汽车。透过车窗Williams注视着外界的一切纷杂。可一句“泪水混杂了一抹灰尘”暗示了她天性里的亦刚亦柔，而正是这份人性的脆弱让她在安定的生活里形成了坚毅却又警觉的性格。虽然“Car Wheels on a Gravel Road”这句歌词Williams唱得无忧无邪，但其实砂砾路上的行车颠簸也可暗指人生路上的颠簸——或是苦难，或是悲痛，或是一切令你心烦意乱的人：喝醉酒的人、自暴自弃的人、偷抢拐骗的黑帮成员、在监狱里服刑的囚犯，抑或是其他失魂落魄的末路鬼。她近乎颤抖而破裂的嗓音，恰好迎合了这些社会阴暗面的歌曲主题。

Earle was deeply inspired by rap in the mid-’90s, particularly Dr. Dre’s ’92 gangsta rap gamechanger The Chronic. And while there remains no word if Williams shared in that affinity, it’s an illuminating prospect: On Car Wheels, her words are dramatically upfront, suspended, locking into mellow grooves. That’s especially true on “2-Kool 2 B 4-Gotten,” where Williams sings a nonlinear stream of images of rural Mississippi, her most audacious attempt at a surreal, Dylanesque poetry collage. The title of “2 Kool 2 B 4-Gotten” was taken from a phrase scrawled on the wall of a Washington County juke joint—the social gathering spaces of Black Americans in the segregated Jim Crow South—which she found in a 1990 book, Juke Joint, by the photographer Birney Imes.

Earle曾深受九十年代中期说唱乐的启发，特别是Dr.Dre于1992年发行的The Chronic，这张对“帮派说唱”具有革新意义的作品。尽管没有确凿的证据表明Williams也曾受到Hip-Hop的影响，但Car Wheels on a Gravel Road里直白的文本和唱词的停顿再加上那成熟的律动效果都让人不由得心生此念。这一点在“2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten”中体现得尤为明显。Williams在歌中罗列了一系列不相关联的密西西比乡村景色，这是她为模仿Dylan做出的一次最大胆最具超现实主义的尝试。“2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten”的标题取自于华盛顿郡一家乡间酒吧墙壁上的涂鸦——这间酒吧是当地被种族隔离的黑人进行社交集会的地点——Williams在一位名叫Birney Imes的摄影师于1990年出版的摄影集Juke Joint里看到了有关这间酒吧的照片。

But Williams sets her scene 50 miles north, in Rosedale, perhaps in homage to bluesman Robert Johnson, who she namechecks in the song and who sang of the same town in his “Traveling Riverside Blues.” Markings from the wall of yet another Juke Joint photo are scattered through Williams’ lyrics: “No dope smoking no beer sold after 12 o’clock,” “No bad language no gambling no fighting,” “Sorry no credit don’t ask,” “Is God the answer YES.” Williams is like a documentarian of these spaces, which incubated the Delta blues and are extinct today. A humble Imes photo of a juke called Turks Place, in Laflore County, also graces the cover of Car Wheels.

但歌曲的场景却被投射在了北方50英里的罗斯代尔城，大概是对传奇布鲁斯吉他手Robert Johnson的致敬。在歌中Williams也提到了他，Johnson在自己的作品“Traveling Riverside Blues”中也同样提到了这座城市。歌词中充斥着这家酒吧的其他涂鸦语：“午夜过后禁烟禁酒，”“脏话赌博打架统统不准，”“概不赊账，无需多问。”Williams像纪录片导演一样将这些现已不见踪迹的三角洲蓝调发源地做了还原和呈现。而专辑封面里那间简陋的村舍也正是Imes所拍摄的另一处名叫“Turks Place”的乡间酒吧。

Williams sings “2 Kool” with a toughened poise and a dash of nihilism. “You can’t depend on anything really/There’s no promises, there’s no point,” go its opening lines, and while she continues weaving her Southern patchwork—pointing to a serpent handler outside—“2-Kool” ultimately becomes a eulogy for Williams’s ex-boyfriend, Clyde. The jumbled narrative seems to mirror the impossibility of making sense of death; it never quite resolves, feels diffuse, feminine even. When Williams sings of “Leaning against the railing of a Lake Charles bridge,” of how her former lover “asked me baby would you jump in with me,” it recalls another Southern epitaph: Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe.” Williams wrote the easeful, bittersweet Car Wheels ballad “Lake Charles” for Clyde as well: “Did an angel whisper in your ear?” Williams cries. “And hold you close and take away your fear/In those long last moments?” It is as close to perfect as elegies come.

Williams在演唱“2 Kool 2 Be4-Gotten”时不仅唱得一身正气而且还带着一丝虚无主义。她在开头唱道：“你不能完全指望某样东西/没有立下契约，承诺也就无法生效”，尔后继续充实她的南部画卷——这次刻画的是一个爱喝酒、爱抓蛇的年轻人，他就是Williams曾经交往过，分手后却不幸离世的前男友Clyde。此时此刻“2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten”仿佛变成了对他的悼词。歌曲跳跃的叙述方式也像是Williams在表达自己懵懵懂懂的死亡观——这是女性独有的，多愁善感、儿女情长式的死亡观。Williams唱着“倚靠在查尔斯湖上的桥栏杆上”，“他问我宝贝你是否愿意和我一起纵身跳下”。这又让人想起了另一首对逝者的挽歌：Bobbie Gentry的“Ode to Billie Joe”。“Lake Charles”，这首哀中带甜的舒缓芭乐同样是Williams为Clyde创作的：“是否有天使在你耳边抚慰苦痛？”“又是否有天使搂抱着你消除你的一切恐惧？”Williams近乎哽咽地唱道。

The soaring, strummed-out build of “Drunken Angel” suggests an opening blue sky. Williams’s most iconic song is another eulogy, this one for her Texan acquaintance, the outlaw underdog Blaze Foley. She wonders why it had to happen, why he had to die in senseless shootout at 39. Williams’ characterization is masterfully vivid: Foley’s outcast glory, his slovenliness. As she describes his “duct tape shoes” and “orphan clothes,” “Drunken Angel” becomes an anthemic honoring of these hidden people—too eccentric, too outside, too much—who cannot bear this world and who this world, in turn, cannot hold.

“Drunken Angel”高昂的吉他扫弦为歌曲平添了些许明朗的氛围。这首Williams的代表作又是一首为亡者谱写的悼歌。这次的哀悼对象是Williams在德克萨斯结识的一个郁郁不得志的乡村歌手Blaze Foley。在歌中Williams质问他为什么要在一次毫无意义的冲突中葬送自己的生命（Blaze Foley在一场与朋友儿子的争执中为保护朋友不受其伤害而被枪杀，享年39岁）。Williams对他的刻画是如此的生动：一个失意颓废而又邋里邋遢的男人。但“Drunken Angel”赞颂的就是这么一群穿着“粘有胶带的鞋子”和“孤儿才会穿的破旧衣服”的loser们——他们古怪木讷、不擅交际，以至于无法接纳这个世界，自然也就无法被这个世界所接纳。

Car Wheels pivots, by side B, to a fully blistering breakup album. Williams knows what belongs at the soul of these pristine songs about merciless heartache, placing them at a nexus of obsession, rejection, and occasional delusion. “Metal Firecracker” is a flawless vagabond love song: As she is wont to do, Williams turns two people sitting in a car into a film treatment of just eight lines, remembering when she was his “queen,” his “biker,” curling that last word with so much effortless twang you can feel the sun in your eyes. “Once I was in your blood and you were obsessed with me,” Williams pines. “You wanted to paint my picture/You wanted to undress me/You wanted to see me in your future.” Love that is anything less than life-changing infatuation feels fraudulent in Williams’ world.

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road的B面则是彻彻底底的分手情歌荟萃。Williams巧妙地将这些有关心碎的纯朴歌谣串成了一条爱情故事线：萌动、抗拒、再到时不时发作的妄想幻象。“Metal Firecracker”是一首完美的流浪情歌：Williams一如既往将正副驾驶座上一对恋人之间的你侬我侬速写为寥寥数句台词的电影梗概：她是他的“皇后”，是他摩托后座的专属乘客。Williams在唱这最后一词“biker”时轻松唱出鼻音的味道，让你切身体会到歌曲传达出的爱意与暖意。“当我的心跳泵送你的血液，你为我着迷而痴狂。”“你想为我作画/你欲褪我裙钗/你愿与我携手未来。”在Williams的世界里，爱情若无“山无棱，天地合”的波澜壮阔，又怎会有“才敢与君绝”的实意真情？

A gentle and foreboding ballad, “Greenville” is the resilient sound of a betrayed woman trying, with impossible grace, to keep a toxic man out of her life. The quiet of the song is in stark contrast to this aggressor who screams and fights and lies, who “drinks hard liquor and comes on strong,” who compels Williams to imagine “empty bottles and broken glass/Busted down doors and borrowed cash.” “Looking for someone to save you,” Williams sings, conjuring the feeling of being used, “Looking for someone to rave about you.” Strength and tenderness are rarely entwined so consequentially. The angelic harmonies from Emmylou Harris feel like solidarity, like another woman carrying her safely through.

“Greenville”是一首表面含情脉脉实际讲述的却是婚姻不幸的歌曲。这是一位女性在遭受丈夫背叛之时以一副令人钦佩的泰然姿态想方设法与那个无耻之徒划清界限。与丈夫又闹又叫又连篇谎话的小丑形象形成鲜明对比的是歌者平静而又镇定的演唱。在歌中丈夫被描述为一个“喝醉后耍酒疯”，“留下一堆破罐空瓶/伸手要钱后就摔门而去”的酒混混。而最后的“你不过是想找一个服侍你的人”，“你不过是想找一个奉承你的人”表明Williams终究看穿了其真面目。刚柔并济如她，尽管很少有人将这人性的对立面权衡得恰到好处。歌曲中天使般的和声来自Emmylou Harris，同为女性的她像是在安抚姐妹的创痛，也像是在向其他遇人不淑的女性发出团结的号召。

The rootless rhythms of travel are survival mechanisms on Car Wheels. The album’s finger-picked closer “Jackson” is like a drifting Carter Family hymn. The deeper she gets on the road, Williams sings, the less she will miss yet another ex-lover. It’s clear this woman knows the game, the fiction, that time alone repairs a wrecked heart. “Once I get to Lafayette, I’m not gonna mind one bit,” she sings, convincing herself. “Once I get to Baton Rouge, I won’t cry a tear for you.” Car Wheels ends in motion, Williams crisscrossing the country in pursuit of herself, the thing she can count on.

自由散漫无拘无束的步调节奏让Car Wheels on a Gravel Road这趟“旅行”显得不落俗套。专辑的结尾曲“Jackson”整首伴奏都是靠吉他指弹完成的，这首歌的轻盈质感听上去像是那支由CarterFamily改编的赞美歌。Williams唱道：一旦你在离别的路上渐行渐远，对前任的牵挂与思念也就随之变淡。很明显这个女人自己也明白，时间足以修复一颗破碎的心。“当我踏上前往拉斐特的旅途，我不会再为君惦念一丝一毫”，“当我踏上前往巴吞鲁日的旅途，我不会再为君流下一滴相思之泪。”这个结尾其实蕴含着释怀与憧憬的意味——Williams在放下一切后选择继续游历整个国家，为的是找寻那个可以真正依靠的自我。

Car Wheels topped the Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop critics poll, earned the Grammy Award for Contemporary Folk Album, and entered the Billboard Top 200. In a four star review for Rolling Stone, Robert Christgau began: “Sometimes it seems Lucinda Williams is too good for this world.” Still, other critics turned mocking eyes at the supposedly “nutty” and delirious “perfectionism” Williams demanded. These criticisms would never so beleaguer a male artist—or as Emmylou Harris put it, “When a guy takes a long time to make a record, he’s a genius. If a woman does that, it’s a different matter.” A Times profile from 1997 illustrated a scene in which Williams’ male collaborators questioned her creative decisions and she proved them wrong. When, in ‘98, someone asked Williams what she learned from the process of making Car Wheels, she said, with some reluctance, “I need to learn to assert myself more in the studio environment because I’m dealing with all men. I wish I had more women to work with.”

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road登上了当年《乡村之声》Pazz and Jop乐评人投票的榜首，赢得了格莱美最佳当代民谣专辑，同时也打入了Billboard 200专辑榜。在《滚石》的一篇四星乐评中，作者Robert Christgau在文章的开头称：“有时候感觉Lucinda Williams有些太过完美，完美得与这个世界格格不入。”尽管如此，其他的评论家对她“像疯子一样过分苛求的完美主义”持以不屑态度，然而这样的讥讽在男性歌手身上却鲜有发生。正如Emmylou Harris所述：“一个男性艺术家为制作一张专辑耗费了大量的时间，人们会称赞这是天才的做法；可如果是一个女性歌手做了同样的事，人们的说法就完全变样了。”在《纽约时报》1997年的一期人物专栏里曾记录了这么一段专辑制作的幕后花絮：Williams的男性搭档们就她某个具有创新意义的歌曲处理而与其产生了分歧，随后Williams便证明他们的质疑是错的。1998年，有人问Williams在Car Wheels on a Gravel Road的创作过程中最大的收获是什么，她在犹豫片刻后给出了这样的回复：“我学会了在录音室里坚守己见，因为我的合作伙伴全是男性。当初真应该选择与更多女性一起合作的。”

Reading the tales of how Williams worked on Car Wheels with a record exec knocking, I’m reminded, again, of her heroine Flannery O’Connor, who refused to open the door of her Georgia home until she had completed her morning writing, even with visitors waiting. “I live in my head, pretty much,” Williams said in 1998. For all of its journeying, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road emerges as eternal proof that home, inside you, is worth fighting for.

了解完Williams在制作Car Wheels on a Gravel Road上花费的心血与努力后，我不禁联想到受她仰慕的Flannery O’Connor每次在完成其晨间写作之前也是大门不出，二门不迈，即使有访客在外等候也是坚决闭门谢客。“吾居即吾思，吾思故吾在。”Williams在1998年的采访中这样说道。无论如何，Car Wheels on a Gravel Road应能成为一个永恒的论据：存在于你心中的那个“家”，不管在何时何地都是值得追寻的。

原文地址： https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lucinda-williams-car-wheels-on-a-gravel-road/

译文仅供参考。由于水平有限，不足之处欢迎指正。