Lucinda Williams will be the recipient of BMI’s 2022 Troubadour Award, to be presented at a private dinner at BMI’s Nashville office on September 12. The award celebrates songwriters who have made a lasting impact on their community and who “craft for the sake of the song, setting the pace for generations of songwriters who will follow.”
BMI’s Mason Hunter, AVP, creative, Nashville, says: “Lucinda has been a torchbearer of true American songwriting for decades. She writes the kinds of songs that can break your heart and still have you coming back for more. With her signature literary style, she has paved the way for so many songwriters and is in a class all her own. We are thrilled to honor her as the 2022 BMI Troubadour.”
The three-time Grammy-winner made her debut with the Ramblin’ On My Mind album for Folkways in 1979, and made her full breakthrough on Mercury with 1998’s Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. The album was certified gold in the US and silver in the UK. Her most recent release, her 18th studio set Good Souls Better Angels, was released in 2020 and topped Billboard’s Tastemakers chart, gaining two Grammy nominations.
In October last year, Williams was inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame, and then in January, she was honored with the International Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association UK. The BMI award adds her to a list of Troubadour Award winners including John Hiatt, John Prine, and Robert Earl Keen. The event will feature tribute performances and guest speakers.
Williams’ extensive American tour stops in Asheville, NC on Saturday (20), with dates running until October, when she plays the State Fair of Texas in Dallas. She then embarks on a European schedule in January 2023, ending with four dates in the UK and one in Ireland, including a London show at the Barbican.
