Sweetie...Lucinda Williams is the shit. OMG, she turns me into a blubbering gob of goo. Listen to the ESSENCE album, particularly "Envy the Wind", "Lonely Girls," "Steal Your Love," and the title track. And, the CAR WHEELS ON A GRAVEL ROAD album is also phenomenal: "Jackson" is a modern classic.
She's popular but really edgy in her honesty, she's substantially progressive, and she carries every aching emotion in that twangy voice.