Texas-based singer-songwriter Kelly Willis announced earlier this week that her near masterpiece album What I Deserve will be re-released this October via Omnivore Recordings. The 25th anniversary expanded edition is due on the 25th of October and will be available as both a CD and an LP (for the first time ever). The five previously unreleased tracks will be live recordings from her 1999 appearance on the famed syndicated concert series Mountain Stage. For liner notes nerds (myself included) famed journalist Peter Blackstock (No Depression, Austin American-Statesman) lends some thoughts.

For those unfamiliar with Willis and her work, let this album and this blog post be an introduction. Willis gained fame in Austin, TX in the late 1980s while gigging relentessly and capturing the attention of both Nanci Griffith and Lyle Lovett, among others. A record deal with MCA Records would follow as well as an appearance in the landmark film Thelma + Louise. Willis would earn an ACM nomination for Top Female Vocalist of 1993. Willis would record three more albums with MCA and an EP on Jerry Moss’ A+M Records before releasing What I Deserve in 1999, her debut album with Rykodisc.

The album included songs penned by Willis herself as well as co-writes with Gary Louris (The Jayhawks), Paul Westerberg, Nick Drake and others. What I Deserve would go on to be her highest charting album to date and reached #1 on the Americana chart, #30 on the Country charts and #24 on Heatseekers. Twenty five years on, the album is seen as a definitive Americana and alt-country release and for damn good reason. In addition to being a commercial success it was also a critical darling and while this writer was not penning AOTY lists in 1999, looking back on it now it has to be in the Top 10 for that year, without question.

One listen will back that acclaim up. From the very first note to the very final seconds What I Deserve is a record that needs to be heard to be understood. There is a sincerity, a yearning and a sense of polish and presence that is peerless. Like listening to Lucinda Williams or Gillian Welch for the first time, there is a sense of presence, of hunger and a pristine attention to detail that makes the album absolutely worth its flowers. Willis lives and breathes every verse, every note and every chorus as if this was her last will and testament. That sense of self is impossible to fake and even harder to emulate. What I Deserve floored me in 1999 and 25 years on it continues to do that every single time.

Pre-order the album here.

The anticipation for Oct. 25 cannot come soon enough.