Williams' daughter has taken us places and told stories as an Americana singer. Her name is Lucinda Williams.

The place she takes us on her new album is the South, where as a girl she traveled around with her poet father.

"We were very close," Williams tells NPR's David Greene, "and the literary world and the music world were part of my psyche at a very young age."

She says she loved watching her dad operate. He was known for plainspoken poetry, and he socialized openly with African-Americans in a time and place where that was frowned upon. He also hung out with iconic writers like Flannery O'Connor, and was proud of his Southern roots.