My close friends and husband know that the musician Lucinda Williams rocks my world. Has since I first listened to her decades ago.

I have all of her recordings, and I’m currently listening to “Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone” in my car.

She is the daughter of the late poet Miller Williams and a fierce songwriter. I’ve been fortunate enough to see her in concert three times, once with my three best friends on an epic trip to Boulder, Colo,, for my 50th birthday. Lucinda is in my age bracket and I find her work authentic and inspiring.

My friend, Watson, will rub in that. When he was attending college, Miller Williams gave a campus reading. I’m completely envious.

My husband loves the music of Neil Young (actually, so do I) and has dozens of his recordings, so our shelf with the “Ys” and the “Ws” is pretty darned full.

Here is a good video of Lucinda performing “Compassion” and another of “Cold Day in Hell.”

When life is throwing me curve balls, I often pull out Lucinda’s CDs and fortify myself. If I had to choose my favorite song of hers, it’d be “West,” probably because I’m so deeply a westerner.

When she performed in Bismarck at the Belle, I requested the song via her social media. It wasn’t on her set list from previous concerts, but Eureka, she sang it! Bonus was that I got to take my daughter to that concert so she could see for herself why her mama reveres Lucinda.

Keep up the good work, lady.