Roots-music legend, and three-time Grammy Award winner Lucinda Williams is set to release her first-ever double album “Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone” on September 30 though her very own Highway 20 Records

“Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone” is said to be ” Williams’ most ambitious and adventurous projects to date.” It features 20 new songs, with 18 written by Williams. The album’s opening track, “Compassion”, was originally a poem by her father, the poet Miller Williams, in which she wrote the music and additional lyrics.

From the press release “This is a personal milestone for Williams as it marks the first time she has composed music for one of her father’s poems, and it is from that song that the album title was taken. ”

The album also features a cover os JJ Cale’s “Magnolia.”

“Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone” features performances by guitarists Bill Frisell and Tony Joe White, Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan, Elvis Costello’s rhythm section of Pete Thomas (drums) and Davey Faragaher (bass) and Wallflowers guitarist Stuart Mathis. Jakob Dylan adds harmony vocals on “It’s Gonna Rain.” Williams’ longtime rhythm section of Butch Norton (drums) and David Sutton (bass) make also contribute. D”Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone” was produced by Williams, Tom Overby and Greg Leisz.

Of the Album Williams says ” “I didn’t set out to do a whole album of country-soul, but once I started working, a stylistic thread kind of emerged,” she says. “It’s a sound I can relate to, one that’s really immediate and really timeless at the same time — kind of sad in an indefinable way. It’s like something my dad said to me many years ago, something I wrote down and included in my song “Temporary Nature (Of Any Precious Thing)” because it was so profound to me — ‘the saddest joys are the richest ones.’ I think that fits this album really well.”

EDIT: Here is the front and back covers. (The back is for the vinyl version.) The photos are by Birney Imes from his book “Juke Joint”. It is the same book that provided the cover for “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road”, as well as the photo that inspired the song “2 Kool 2 Be Forgotten”

See Williams perform “Something Wicked This Way Comes” from “Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone”