Lucinda Williams Brings ‘Car Wheels on a Gravel Road’ Tour to Oakland’s Fox Theater

Lucinda Williams released Car Wheels on a Gravel Road in 1998 to critical and popular acclaim, overdue recognition for a songwriter by then recording and performing in a style more and less country, but always achingly gorgeous, for more than two decades. Williams, born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, released her breakthrough album at the age of 45, and it seems to draw on a deep well of travel, loss and contemplation. With references to Southern geography, bathroom stall missives and characters sorely missed as well as better forgotten, Williams created a roadmap with emotional depth, leading to the ever-healing heart. On Saturday, Nov. 2 at Fox Theater in Oakland, Williams performs Car Wheels on a Gravel Road in its entirety, plus a set drawing on the rest of her career, as part of a tour marking the album’s 20th anniversary. —Sam Lefebvre