Legendary songwriter known for songs about hard times and hard living in Louisiana and East Texas.

During a career spanning five decades, her songs have been recorded by Tom Petty, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, and Mary Chapin Carpenter to name only a few.

In 2002 TIME magazine named her “America’s Best Songwriter”.

Her 2014 album, Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, whose first track and title come from a poem written by her late father, won the 2015 Americana Music Award for “Album of the Year”.