Martin D-37W Claro Walnut Sunburst Honors Lucinda Williams

C.F. Martin honors Lucinda Williams with the D-37W Signature Edition. From birth, Lucinda Williams seemed predestined to become a songwriter. Her well-traveled childhood included stays in Louisiana, Chile, Mexico and Arkansas, and her family's eclectic music tastes encompassed everything from blues to Broadway. Rebellious and fearless, she dropped out of college to pursue her music career, but her unwillingness to cater to record industry whims kept her first recording unreleased for several years.

After a quiet debut with Happy Woman Blues in 1980, she established an underground reputation with release of her Lucinda Williams album in 1988. Her career began gathering momentum in the early 1990s, first with the release of Sweet Old World in 1992 and then by winning the "Best Country Song" Grammy Award in 1994 for "Passionate Kisses." Her next album, 1998's Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, put Williams in the big time, earning rave reviews, Gold record sales, a Grammy Award for "Best Contemporary Folk Album," and yielding the hit single "Can't Let Go."

Williams built on her success in the new millennium with the release of Essence in 2001. The album resulted in her third Grammy Award, this one for "Best Female Rock Performance" for the cut "Get Right With God." World Without Tears, released earlier this year to ecstatic reviews, is perhaps her darkest and most revealing album yet and shows fame has not slowed her evolution as an artist.

The Martin D-37W Lucinda Williams Signature Edition embodies altcountry attitude. This traditional Dreadnought features a top of Engelmann spruce, and back and sides of flamed claro walnut. Scalloped, forward-shifted top braces enhance the powerful tone. The 1 11/16" low profile neck is carved from genuine mahogany.

Bold herringbone edge purfling and Style 45 soundhole rosette with a central ring of blue paua shell inlay add color and contrast against the tobacco sunburst top. Both top and back are bound in contrasting grained ivoroid, with the latter encompassed by black/white/black purfling and divided by a colorful Style 45 mosaic back strip edged with black fiber lines. The top is protected with a polished and beveled tortoise-color pickguard, and the entire body is finished in polished gloss lacquer.

The solid square tapered headstock features a polished flame claro walnut headplate to match the body. The familiar gold "C.F. Martin & Co." logo shelters a spectacular "two-headed serpent" inlay (recreating a Williams' tattoo drawn from Aztec mythology) in abalone, mother-of-pearl and composite that weaves between the nickel Waverly open-geared tuners with butterbean knobs. The unbound black ebony fingerboard is unadorned except for simple, distinctive "diamonds and squares" inlays -- recreating a pattern used on guitars that Martin built for William Foden in the early 20th century -- at the 5th, 7th, and 9th frets. The matching black African ebony belly bridge is equipped with white bridge pins topped with tortoise-color "red eye" inlays. Both the nut and compensated saddle are crafted from genuine bone for clear, brilliant tone.

Protected in a Geib style hardshell case, each D-37W Lucinda Williams Signature Edition guitar bears an interior label personally signed by Lucinda Williams and Martin Chairman and CEO C.F. Martin IV, and numbered in sequence with the edition total. Left-handed instruments may be ordered with no additional cost; factoryinstalled electronics also are available at additional charge.

Orders for this Signature Edition will be accepted for a period of 60 days from the date of announcement. After the order period closes, the total number of D-37W Lucinda Williams Signature guitars and the names of participating Martin dealers will be posted on the Martin website.

List Price $4999.00.