Lucinda Williams has made a career out of doing things her way.  Her past is full of legendary confrontations with record label execs and producers who did not support her vision of what her music should be.  With the success of CAR WHEELS ON A GRAVEL ROAD, that relentless fight finally paid dividends as the commerce finally caught up with her art.  Rather than repeating CAR WHEELS formula over and over, Lucinda left behind the Southern travel logs and delved into more emotional material.  The songs on ESSENCE and WORLD WITHOUT TEARS not only dug into the deeper depths of her psyche, but also loosened up musically, mixing more rock and hard blues into her Americana palette.  WEST seems like a logical extension of the two previous albums emotionally, while moving into new territory musically.