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Martina McBride is very talented but is still, despite this writer's protestations, in my mind extremely "mainstream." I did really like her song, "My Daughter's Eyes" and of course "Independence Day" was a a plain old good tune. But how can you by any stretch compare her with, much less put her or anyone above Lucinda Williams, very arguably one of the greatest WRITERS -- not just songwriters -- in America today, one of the most brilliant literary minds of all time, as well as a stunning, tasteful, cool, groovy musician and bandleader. Williams is not a country artist anyway, and doesn't pretend to be -- she's as steeped in Delta blues (if not more so) and roots rock, politically-tinged folk and the singer-songwriter "ethos" as she is the down-home echoes of earlier ("real") country. But for your one "tailor-mades" line in "Satin Sheets" I'll raise you any one of Williams' myriad brilliant (AND innocent) turns of phrase - from "June bug versus hurricane" in "Too Cool 2 B 4Forgotten," musing about cruising "in a yellow Barracuda, listenin'to Howlin' Wolf" in "Lake Charles," not to mention the explosive (!) "Metal Firecracker" on her album "Car Wheels" ... all the way back to her first widely-received album, wherein "The Night's Too Long" is okay, maybe sad, but brilliantly brave; not to mention the triumph of Lucinda's multi-platinum-penned tune, "Passionate Kisses," arguably one of the most exuberant, self-affirming anthems ever written (and a giant hit for Mary-Chapin Carpenter, no slouch herself as a singer-songwriter though she "broke" in "country"). Someone (Steve Earle?) said, "All American music (I think he added or included, "rock & roll") is folk music." Let's skip the labels and the moralizing and get down to great singing and great writing. McBride is an excellent singer. Williams is brilliant at both.
