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Essence
Studio album by Lucinda Williams
Released	June 5, 2001
Genre	Blues rock alternative country
Length	50:58
Label	Lost Highway
Producer	Bo Ramsey Tom Tucker Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams chronology
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998) Essence (2001) World Without Tears (2003)

Essence is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, released on June 5, 2001, by Lost Highway Records. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 28, selling approximately 44,500 copies in its first week. By 2008, it had sold 336,000 copies in the U.S.

A critical and commercial success, the album earned Williams three Grammy Award nominations in 2002: Best Contemporary Folk Album, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the title track, and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the track "Get Right With God", which she won.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	82/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Blender
Chicago Sun-Times
Christgau's Consumer Guide	A−
Entertainment Weekly	B+
Los Angeles Times
Q
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Spin	8/10

Essence was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 82, based on 11 reviews. Reviewers observed a departure from Williams' similarly acclaimed 1998 album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, with Rolling Stone citing the "willful intimacy" in Essence's music and Spin contrasting the "halting, spare" presentation with its predecessor's "giddy, verbose" one. AllMusic similarly stated "those hoping for another dose of the bluesy roots rock of Car Wheels on a Gravel Road may be disappointed, but if you want to take a deep and compelling look into the heart and soul of a major artist, then you owe it to yourself to hear Essence.

The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau found it "imperfect" but still praised Williams' artistry, saying " is too damn good to deny." Salon regarded the album as "an emotional mess of a masterpiece". Entertainment Weekly wrote "Lucinda Williams doesn’t merely wallow in suffering. She savors it like a glass of your finest Bordeaux", and called it her "folkiest, gentlest album" and "a steamy slow-crawl — southern humidity as music — that plays into her strengths as the Joan of Dark of the alt-country set". Q listed Essence as one of the best 50 albums of 2001.

Awards

Track listing

All tracks written by Lucinda Williams.

Personnel

• Lucinda Williams – vocals, acoustic guitar
• Jim Keltner – drums
• Tony Garnier – bass, acoustic guitar
• Bo Ramsey – electric guitar
• Charlie Sexton – drums, hand drum, rhythm guitar, Hammond B3 organ, piano, background vocals, tremolo slide guitar
• Reese Wynans – Hammond B3 organ
• Jim Lauderdale – harmony vocals

Additional musicians:

• David Mansfield – viola
• Ryan Adams – tremolo guitar ("Essence")
• Gary Louris – background vocals ("Essence")
• Joy Lynn White – background vocals ("Get Right With God", "Bus to Baton Rouge", "Broken Butterflies")

Charts

References

1. ^ Nichols, Natalie (June 3, 2001). "Rawer This Time Around". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
2. ^ Houlihan, Mary (June 10, 2001). "Lucinda Williams, 'Essence' (Lost Highway)". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on November 19, 2018. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
3. ^ "Reviews for Essence by Lucinda Williams". Metacritic. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
4. Martens, Todd (June 14, 2001). "Staind Fends Off Radiohead, St. Lunatics At No. 1". Billboard. Retrieved 22 February 2007.
5. Caulfield, Keith (February 8, 2008). "Ask Billboard: Williams' Wild 'West'". billboard.com. Billboard. Retrieved 9 February 2008.
6. ^ "Artist: Lucinda Williams". The Recording Academy. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
7. ^ Deming, Mark. "Essence – Lucinda Williams". AllMusic. Retrieved August 10, 2005.
8. "Lucinda Williams: Essence". Blender (1): 107. June–July 2001.
9. ^ Christgau, Robert. "Lucinda Williams: Essence". RobertChristgau.com. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
10. ^ Browne, David (June 8, 2001). "Essence". Entertainment Weekly. No. 599. p. 74. Archived from the original on April 16, 2017. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
11. "Lucinda Williams: Essence". Q (178): 125. July 2001.
12. ^ Berger, Arion (May 24, 2001). "All the Small Things". Rolling Stone. No. 869. p. 86. Archived from the original on March 4, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
13. McGee, David; Miles, Milo (2004). "Lucinda Williams". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). London: Fireside Books. pp. 875–876. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
14. ^ Weisbard, Eric (July 2001). "Lucinda Williams: Essence". Spin. 17 (7): 125. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
15. McLeese, Don (May 31, 2001). "Lucinda Williams' psychosexual murk". salon.com. Salon Media Group. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
16. "The Best 50 Albums of 2001". Q (185): 60–65. December 2001.
17. Essence (booklet). Lucinda Williams. Lost Highway Records. 2001.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
18. "Lucinda Williams chart history". Retrieved 2021-10-02 – via imgur.com.
19. Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 302.
20. "Charts.nz – Lucinda Williams – Essence". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
21. "Norwegiancharts.com – Lucinda Williams – Essence". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
22. "Swedish Charts > Lucinda Williams". Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
23. "Official Charts > Lucinda Williams". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2021-10-02.
24. "Billboard 200 > Lucinda Williams". Billboard. Retrieved 2021-10-02.

External links

• Essence at Discogs (list of releases)
• Lucinda Williams Official Website

• Lucinda Williams albums
• 2001 albums
• Lost Highway Records albums