Lucinda Williams C/D?

Car Wheels, Sweet Old World and the S/T are great great great.

pretty much. they all have some filler, but more classic than not. essence has a lower batting average, but the great songs on there (the title track, "blue," "lonely girls," "i envy the wind") are some of my favorites. world without tears didn't do much for me -- some ill-advised nods toward hip-hop, and a lot of stuff that felt recycled.

Also: Greil Marcus' splenetic disgust is marvelous to read.

http://www.zero.co.nz/music/images/The%20Velvet%20Underground%20-%20The%20Velvet%20Underground%20&%20Nico.jpg

Both dud.

The best part of that New Yorker profile was the revelation that she dumped her bassist boyfriend as a way to surmount writer's block!

"As great an emotional fraud as Destiny's Child--wins the prize over them as the most mannered singer in pop music because she's been fooling people with it longer. A monster of self-praise, of the poor-mouth, to her own self be true, but I love one of her comments in the current Esquire: 'Some of my best friends are music critics.' What a shock."

See also: her cover of Nick Drake's "Which Will" on the first Morning Becomes Eclectic compilation.

From the (petty) Bill Buford profile in the New Yorker and the erratic behavior on her tour a year or two ago, it seems like she may be no stabler than Cat Power, and I think there's a similarity in their brilliance and inconsistency.

this is possibly true, but only if meant as a compliment.

pompous.

January 28, 2007
Playlist | Lucinda Williams
A) Sexy, B) Loud or C) Dreamy? Try D) All of the Above.
By WINTER MILLER
IMAGINE a time before alternative country. Before Americana and roots rock. Picture a corner office, sometime in the early ’80s, with record executives scratching their heads over how to market a talented singer, songwriter and guitarist from Louisiana named Lucinda Williams. Was she country? Folk? Blues? The answer of course was (and is) all of the above. A three-time Grammy winner, Ms. Williams will release “West,” her eighth studio album, on Feb. 13. A tour is scheduled to begin soon after, including a stop at Radio City Music Hall on March 23. Ms. Williams, 54, shows no signs of getting any less sexy with her lyrics or her taste in music. She recently spoke by phone with Winter Miller about what she’s listening to now.

Sara Tavares

She’s Portuguese. She writes and sings beautifully melodic songs that have a dreamy, uplifting energy to them. I adore this kind of music and listen to a lot of it, whatever I can find. There’s something very soothing and hypnotic about it. It’s very sexy and wraps me up in coziness. It kind of transports me. Sara Tavares has a very fresh perspective. A fresh outlook: life is fun, life is glorious, live in the moment. That’s what her “Balancê” (Times Square) feels like.

Heartless Bastards

They’re cool, loud and raunchy. They’re a great live three-piece band: guitar, bass and drums. They’re from Ohio. Erika Wennerstrom, the guitar player, is unassuming and a little shy, but she has a mighty blues-rock voice. She just stomps and wails onstage. “All This Time” (Fat Possum) sounds new and edgy. They’re blending sounds from punk and blues, similar to what the Black Keys are doing, but more punk.

Carrie Rodriguez

Carrie is a young singer-songwriter with roots in Texas. She is the daughter of an Austin singer-songwriter, David Rodriguez. She started out accompanying other artists on violin and then spent some time as part of a duet with Chip Taylor, who is famous for writing “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning.” Now she is finally striking out on her own as well, and I have to say I am very impressed. She’s got something unique in her voice that’s very subtle and a little smoky and sweet. She’s got a refreshingly spunky attitude to go along with it. I detect a certain wisdom in her, and yet a sense of wonder as well. On “Seven Angels on a Bicycle” (Back Porch/Train Wreck/EMI), Chip Taylor contributes to the songwriting.

Richard Dorfmeister vs. Madrid de Los Austrias

I absolutely adore his stuff and listen to it all the time. You have to hear it. It’s remixed funk. It grooves big time. The music is filled with sexy beats, dance beats and very primitive beats. There is a connection between the hip-hop remix funk music of today and the Delta blues. When you listen to a record like “Grand Slam” (G-Stone), you hear how the music is based on African rhythms. It goes all the way back to that. With Dorfmeister, it sounds like he’s taking soul-funk music and blending hip-hop beats and reggae with African and Latin rhythms.

Gotan Project

I’m in love with them. I would describe their music as a Latin world-beat sound. It’s transcendent, moody and very percussive. Part of it was recorded in Paris and part of it in Buenos Aires. I’ve always been drawn to the Latin culture and collect South American and Mexican folk art. When I was growing up, we lived in Santiago, Chile, and Mexico City. “Lunático” (Ya Basta!/Science & Melodie) may well be the sexiest album I’ve ever listened to, and yet it’s so ethereal. It’s very global; there is a very erotic kind of beat supporting an exquisitely seductive, warm female vocal. I can’t say enough about them.

Lila Downs

She’s a beautiful Mexican woman and an academically trained artist who has rediscovered her roots. Here is a young girl with an old soul giving a nod to traditional Mexican folk music, ballads and rancheros and bringing them to a new audience. Her music is colorful and soulful, and she has been blessed with a gorgeous voice. The songs on “La Cantina” (Narada/EMI) are all in Spanish and include the English translations. On one of the songs she sings about how to make mole sauce.

Hem

They had another album before this that I liked, so I bought this one. I listened to “Funnel Cloud” (Waveland/Nettwerk) and was drawn in more each time I listened to it. There’s something about the melodies; they just feel very genuine to me. It’s the kind of record that doesn’t jump out at you right away. It grows on you. The majority of stuff I’ve really been blown away by has been international music. The last time I was blown away by a contemporary Caucasian singer-songwriter was when I heard Ryan Adams. I think in this day and age it’s important to reach out across the globe. We could all stand to be a lot more globally aware, get out of our own backyard.

Comets on Fire

They’re from Santa Cruz, Calif., and with the album “Avatar” (Sub Pop), they twist the psychedelic kaleidoscope of music’s past and turn it into something completely new. Imagine if the Allman Brothers met Queens of the Stone Age over at the Stooges’ house. And that’s just for starters.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Peasant garb?

She wasn't coming back on her own. "Where's Lu?" a woman, apparently a manager, was asking. "We're late." Lu was last seen standing behind the outdoor stage, just after the rain had soaked the parking lot, flipping through a thick black binder of song lyrics, taking sheets out, putting them back in. The band looked nervous and stalled by tuning yet again. "Are you ready, Lu?" the woman asked. "I have to go to the bathroom," Lu said. They looked over at the line of Johnny-on-the-Spots. "No way," Lu said. She closed the binder and headed out the back of the lot, toward a bar.

nice voice

New album streaming on NPR:

http://www.npr.org/2014/09/21/348713419/first-listen-lucinda-williams-down-where-the-spirit-meets-the-bone

the new double album is phantastic. quite dark. a slow, muddy river approaching the sea. her voice is kind of broken but the music and the band (bill frisell, david sutton, greg leisz, val mccallum, butch norton) are ace. te blues "doors of heaven" is incredibly dense and moody.

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/27/464433522/first-listen-lucinda-williams-the-ghosts-of-highway-20

I'm one of the many who sorta gave up on her after being disappointed too many times, but this new one is, as you say, phantastic. To me, it's her Time Out Of Mind, or maybe her Wrecking Ball; a "statement" record that succeeds because of how seemingly not eager to please it is. The longer tunes on here--the title track, "Louisiana Story"--are some of my favorite music she's made in years. Someone said this is as much Frisell's record as Lucinda's, and though I wouldn't go quite that far (he's conspicuously absent on half the songs on the second disc), he brings a lot to these songs beyond the clock-punching I think he can sometimes be guilty of. The guitar nerd in me also really loves how the two guitars are separated left and right. Just like Fugazi! As I get to know the album better, I absolutely plan to spend some time listening to it hard-panned. That's just my idea of fun, I guess.

Also, this is a double CD that comes with a t-shirt (at least it at my local indie shop) for $9.99! Can't really beat that.

That's good to hear, I will check this one out -- there was one or two there that I thought were just kinda bad...

Likewise. Have been steering clear of her for decades but that description sounds like it's time to come out of the bunker.

The Lucinda Williams album has gone off of NPR because of you. Elliott Smith too.

But some singles streaming elsewhere. Hard to stop thinking I'm listening to recent Bob Dylan.

I can't stand the new title track. Can she please stops slurring?

Is it an affectation or a genuine physical affliction?

Wait, this is a second double album with Frisell et al?I liked the last one ok, the first in a while, maybe since ... "Essence?" But that was largely because it felt like a little effort had been made after several years of coasting. Good to hear that this is (may be) a major work.

Hm, s/t is not streaming.

Wow, what a great guitar record this turns out to be. And yeah, man, does she refuse to enunciate. Wake up, Lucinda!

I liked parts of Blessed and Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone, but I was so bored by this one that I gave up five songs in. Might go back and give it another shot later--does it ever pick up, or is the whole thing a drowsy blues crawl?

Tbf, if there was no Lucinda it would sound not unlike some of Frisell's Americana records.

I liked Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone but I haven't loved anything since Car Wheels. I'll give the new one a chance.

Agreed 100% on her vocal affectations, which can be extreme. I trace it back to a duet she did with Elvis Costello, There's a Story In Your Voice. She sounds like she's parodying herself. Her first line sounds like "Wuuunce I Tuuuhoold Yew Faaiiiry Tayellz"

I was listening to "Essence" the other day, and I know it was pretty underrated when it came out, not least because "Car Wheels" was so massively overrated, but I think "Essence" might be her best record. At the very least this is one of the best songs called "Blue:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0_AVhvdpgw

yeah i think that is my fave of hers.

Of her guitar army doubles, I dug most of Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone but thought it should have been even closer to the bone, ditching a few fatty clunkers, especially the endless closer, but it's easy to skip, they all are of course---then Ghosts of Highway 20 I tempted to say is an exorcism or six, but really it's how to live with the ghosts you can't shake, lighting up the barn, the sweatlodge, smoke 'em if you got 'em. Woody Guthrie's "House of Earth," completed by Lucinda, is not one that can be finished, with its shifting, going deeper and sidewise and up a little (the slurs totally work in this ballad, and I'm totally used to them after all these years anyway).
Re-recorded Sweet Old World, now This Sweet Old World, with re-recorded, prev. unreleased material from the original SOW sessions, is real good too, though I haven't done any comparative listening.
Next up: a collab w Charles LLoyd and the Marvels, awright,

"House of Earth" is on Ghosts of Highway 20, and an example of how she can still go guitar armyless when necessary.

Vanished Gardens (the album w/Charles LLoyd and the Marvels) is really good stuff.

Indeed it is. I especially like the re-do of "Dust."

beautifully desolate lyrics, had never heard that one before.

I stick to the sweet old world of her first few albums.

From before the stroke?

I know nothing about her life.

Was joking. Don’t know if there was such an event, assume there probably wasn’t, it’s just that she sings as if there was.

Glad to see World Without Tears here. I like it every bit as much as Car Wheels.

I know a lot of people think she's spent at this point, but there are some gems to be found among her recent albums: "A Kiss Like Your Kiss," in particular, is stunning.

At the very least her most recent albums *sound* great.

I also got off the bus after West (which contained one of her best ever songs, "What If?") and I highly doubt she'll make another great record. The re-recording of Sweet Old World was terrible.

Saw Lucinda with Charles Lloyd and the Marvels featuring Bill Frisell, Greg Leisz and more tonight for free at the Library of Congress. Sounded good. I haven’t heard the album yet. Lloyd’s horn playing worked well with her ragged slurred vocals. They did Dylan’s Masters of War, plus a bunch of songs from the album.

Finally listened to some of the album this morning (after seeing the gig last night). A real collaboration. She defers a lot to Lloyd (who once played with Howlin Wolf among others). At the gig last night, Lloyd played piano on a classical feeling composition with local DC violinist Chelsea Green to open the night, then he and the band played for quite a bit, and finally Lucinda came out to join them.

Lloyd (who once played with Howlin Wolf among others)

Err, he's also had a rather esteemed career as a leader and released dozens of incredible records. Playing with Howlin Wolf when he was in high school is hardly his claim to fame

I knew he was a leader etc., but I only recently heard of the Howlin Wolf connection. Sorry I didn't make that more clear

The Lucinda W & Charles Lloyd & the Marvels Vanished Gardens album is Geoff Himes #1 Roots album in his top 10 for Paste.

her tough new album is better than anything she's released in some time ... Stuart Mathis kills all over it, and the dark mean rock songs really suit her late-period voice

so much dgaf old person swag

That sounds great. Saw someone compare it to Ragged Glory the other day, which definitely raised my interest.

The band sounds great.

She sounds terrible. I had to stop listening to there for a while because her slurring was interfering with my memory of those first four albums.

She's splitting the difference between Exile-era Mick Jagger and post-car wreck Jan Berry, what's not to like?

Let me count the ways1

her voice has always been an acquired taste, and it has certainly gotten rougher over the years ... I think she uses and writes for it well, it reminds me of how Dylan has adapted

I'm sure my appreciation for the way she sounds now has been enhanced by seeing her live a couple of times in recent years

I need to check this new one out, slurred vocals and all

the wrecked bluesy vocals are a feature I like about this album very much!

a whole album of it though, it gets a bit too much for me.

The slurred vocals aren't what bothers me about the new one; the plodding arrangements and the ham-fisted lyrics are the problem.

After a few listens, I like the attitude and production but as with most post-Essence stuff I just don't feel like the songs are there. I don't mind it chugging along in the background, but not much really grabs me.

To remind myself, I put on Sweet Old World between spins of the new one, and even the middling stuff on there is more tuneful than the new stuff.

I don't think it's really going for tuneful though. I dig it, certainly not the most "enjoyable" listen but it's definitely arresting. parts of it sound like if Courtney Love tried to do her own Rid of Me.

Yeah, I get that it's more a vibe record than a songs record. I guess I just like her better with songs. That said, the vibe suits her.

Took some getting used to, but it's really tight, and now I get the songs.on both counts like she's really absorbed Pretenders debut, also the guitarist-violinist is deep into Link Wray sum of my NScene 2020 ballot comments.
This year, from Essential Bob Dylan Covers?
I just first listened to Lucinda Williams' Bob's Back Pages: A Night of Bob Dylan Songs,(2020 download. on CD later in 2021?) which is a lot to take in, quality and quantity and range and depth (of dug-in heels, writing and choice-wise), but clearly she's wide awake all night, no slurs, lots of teeth, with her hot crusty railroad combo from Good Souls Better Angels, I think (it's a download, so no fancy info). The theme, one of the recurring themes, is restless frustration---"I look like I'm movin', but I'm standin' still," but never shut up. The dread "To Make You Feel My Love" is the ringer, and closer, but works (and follows "Idiot Wind"), by far the best version I've heard, of which there have of course been a shitload. "Everything's Broken," "Political World," and "Man of Peace" make one ornery triptych early on. "Queen Jane Approximately"is drinking wedding band folk punk change of pace, nice. Was going to pick some from YouTube, but can't decide.

― dow, Friday, June 18, 2021

Right now I'm enjoying her Petty set:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXehWRXraww

Fave of her Stones covers so far
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lftYfsL_HCM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUh7yx5BzD4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pP6lCczab8

Would have fit on Good Souls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVirb7_8NHw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgF6lIlHV8s

I had no idea she had a stroke last year. As of a few weeks ago, she apparently walks with a cane, has lingering pain in her left arm and leg, and is unable to play guitar. Saw a picture of her performing just the other night and I think she was sitting down.

Aw man, it's that bad? It could be much worse obviously, but still, very sad to hear that. I've only seen her twice in concert, both within the last eight years - I don't know how much more she can recover, but it'll be tough seeing her this way at the next show.

Has retrospectively made the late '18 exchange upthread between Soto & Redd go from o_O to O_O.

Yeesh. Good thing this place isn't Twitter.

well, yeah

Has retrospectively made the late '18 exchange upthread between Soto & Redd go from o_O to O_O.

dang i did not know about all these covers. lucinda still rules!!

Yep---as I was recently hyping some friends via email (more details upthread):

Of all the Covid-alibi placeholder covers sets I've heard, most of my faves (other than Chrissie Hynde's rainy day Dylan tapes), are in Lucinda Williams' Lu's Jukebox series:, incl Petty, Dylan, Stones, a round of 60s country, and Southern Soul--from Memphis to Muscle Shoals and More. She relishes "The Games People Play," dishin' the condition. I expected some melodrama being dragged over the gravel in "A Rainy Night In Georgia," but no, it's rueful, wide awake in the middle of the night, and what else is new--she's ready to get aboard "I Can't Stand The Rain," "Take Me To The River," and some I didn't know, like "Main Street Mission." Ode To Billy Joe" is the only dud. unwisely begging comparison. Otherwise, if you like her at all, I' think you'll like this.

I love this song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVRGoDoI5_k

Coming to St. Louis---good recap of last couple years, conversation with her and husband Tom: https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/music/after-two-challenging-years-music-was-healing-for-singer-songwriter-lucinda-williams/article_b118e7e0-f4be-5ba0-b654-557470aed88f.html

I mentioned the Lu's Jukebox series as good Covid placeholders---did not know they were from Covid benefits, for musicians who couldn't tour.

recovering from a stroke progress

I’ve been doing a lot of rehab, physical fitness stuff.” For a while, she couldn’t play guitar and is only occasionally trying to play it onstage again.

Memoir out April 25:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41SOU5fTg8L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Lucinda Williams’s rise to fame was anything but easy. Raised in a working-class family in the Deep South, she moved from town to town each time her father—a poet, a textbook salesman, a professor, a lover of parties—got a new job, totaling twelve different places by the time she was eighteen. Her mother suffered from severe mental illness and was in and out of hospitals. And when Williams was about a year old, she had to have an emergency tracheotomy—an inauspicious start for a singing career. But she was also born a fighter, and she would develop a voice that has captivated millions.

In Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You, Williams takes readers through the events that shaped her music—from performing for family friends in her living room to singing at local high schools and colleges in Mexico City, to recording her first album with Folkway Records and headlining a sold-out show at Radio City Music Hall. She reveals the inspirations for her unforgettable lyrics, including the doomed love affairs with “poets on motorcycles” and the gothic southern landscapes of the many different towns of her youth, including Macon, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans. Williams spent years working at health food stores and record stores during the day so she could play her music at night, and faced record companies who told her that her music was not “finished,” that it was “too country for rock and too rock for country.”

Will she talk about the reasons why she hasn't made a decent record in 20 years? Everything she's done since World Without Tears has been mediocre.

"Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone" kind of worth it for the band alone

Yeah, "Bone" rules

Phew. Seeing two Lucinda Williams threads bumped had me nervous for a second.

I wasn't that crazy about World Without Tears either (Essence had been the last one I really enjoyed in its entirety), but I thought Good Souls Better Angels was a welcome and excellent surprise.

I thought that one was good, I heard a bit of the collaboration she did with Charles Lloyd and that was solid too.

All the albums I've mentioned on this thread---and prob some more I've left out, better check---still sound good to me, some in quite different ways. She goes different places, has some fans who want maybe just one or two parts, like with Neil Young, Dylan, Miles, she contains multi-tooods.

Also, with these and other artists who are true lifers, prolific as hell, if you hear 2, 3, or more that you don't like, or just get burnt out on so many releases over the years, can give up on keeping up (happened to me with Elvis Costello way before it should have)(but I do want to hear the new collection of his Bacharach collabs).

Anyway, I'll ask the library to order her book if they haven't already.

I really like her Exile on Main Street covers. She was born to sing "Sway"

Lol sorry I always think Sway is on Exile but it's not

MY POINT STANDS

Lucinda Williams has announced a new album, Stories From A Rock N Roll Heart, due June 30 via Highway 20 Records/Thirty Tigers. It's her first new album since 2020's Good Souls Better Angels, and her first since suffering a stroke in November 2020 tha left her motor skills partially impaired -- including her ability to play the guitar. In writing the album, without her typical method, she called on her husband Tom Overby, friend and collaborator Jesse Malin, longtime road manager Travis Stephens, and more to co-write and collaborate. Additional contributions come from co-producer and engineer Ray Kennedy, and backing vocalists Jeremy Ivey, Buddy Miller, Angel Olsen, Margo Price, Tommy Stinson, and more.

Lucinda tapped Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa for backing vocals on the title track and "New York Comeback," which she released today. "New York Comeback" is classic country-infused rock, with earnest lyrics and standout harmonies. Listen to the single and check out the artwork and tracklist for Stories From A Rock N Roll Heart below.

More than halfway through her memoir. It’s a solid, easygoing work that reads like “her”, although the prose doesn’t impress me that much. Nowhere near as bleak as Rickie Lee Jones’. There are maybe 5 sentences on her first marriage, which is about what Elvis Costello devoted to

I was surprised to learn that Charles Bukowski incorporated her childhood home and father into his novel WOMEN

Listening to her entire catalog again, and it’s increeible how much great material is on her double-CD works The Ghosts of Highway 20 and Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone. Blessed is fantastic, too

I got off the train long ago. Maybe time to get back on

Yes, and she's continued to be an exemplary singer-songwriter as bandleader-collaborator since the double-CD milestones---haven't yet checked Stories From a Rock 'n' Roll Heart, but Good Souls Better Angels is blazin amazin, and I've enjoyed all those subsequent covers albums---Dylan, Petty, Stones, trad country, soul---as mentioned upthread, come to think of it.

I've heard all those late period albums too, and I don't think any of them are anywhere near as good as Car Wheels or Essence. Good Souls Better Angels was a real hard slog.

I tried listening to “buttercup”-and didn’t make it to the end

All her nuance is lost in the big production maybe

You could argue that the songs on her latter albums are too long, and most of them do exceed 5 minutes in length.

It doesn’t seem to be a loved album, but I really like Vanished Gardens. The Charles Lloyd/Lucinda thing was not something I could have ever predicted.

I haven't kept up with all of her work, but I thought Good Souls Better Angels was excellent.

Yeah, I love Vanished Gardens too. And speaking of one-offs...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poSjrHMcclo

MIKE CAMPBELLL & THE DIRTY KNOBS
VAGABONDS, VIRGINS & MISFITS
1. The Greatest
2. Angel Of Mercy
3. Dare To Dream (feat. Graham Nash)
4. Hands Are Tied
5. Hell Or High Water (feat. Lucinda Williams)
6. So Alive
7. Shake These Blues
8. Innocent Man
9. Don’t Wait Up (feat. Chris Stapleton & Benmont Tench)
10. My Old Friends
11. Amanda Lynn
LUCINDA WILLIAMS + MIKE CAMPBELL & THE DIRTY KNOBS’
ALONE AND TOGETHER, COME HELL OR HIGH WATER TOUR
September 10—Midland, TX—Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center
September 11—Austin, TX—Moody Theater
September 17—Salt Lake City, UT—Eccles Theater
September 20—Las Vegas, NV—The Pearl Theatre at The Palms
September 21—Reno, NV—Silver Legacy
September 23—Oakland, CA—Fox Theater
September 25—Mesa, AZ—Ikeda Theater
September 27—Los Angeles, CA—The Bellwether
September 28—Santa Barbara, CA—Arlington Theatre
September 29—Del Mar, CA—The Sound
For more information, please contact
Joe Cohen or Carla Sacks at Sacks & Co., 212.741.1000, joe.cohen at sacksco.com or carla at sacksco.com.

I couldn't make it through that Mercury Rev collaboration. Ugh.

She has a new bar on the LES.

YES, I noticed! While I was waiting to get in the Harrison/Belew show, I got an email saying Craig Finn was doing a surprise free show at Lucinda's that same evening - apparently his outdoor show was cancelled due to the weather forecast, hence the surprise (indoors) show.

i finally saw her last week with Father John Misty, what a great set, she got a massive reception from the younger crowd

https://www.grubstreet.com/article/lucinda-williams-honky-tonk-bar-lucindas-nyc.html

Oh, it's where Brownies used to be. Well, the more well-known Brownies.

Live band karaoke on Fridays!

Or maybe it's Saturday.

Just saw she’s touring with Heart this fall, which seems like a good combo.

Listening to her entire catalog again, and it’s increeible how much great material is on her double-CD works The Ghosts of Highway 20 and Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone. Blessed is fantastic, too

― beamish13, Thursday, July 4, 2024 9:36 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Bone is the one that still wows me.

Caught her in-store performance at Rough Trade tonight. It looked like she was recovering from a recent illness (like a bad cold, the flu or even COVID) because she had a coughing fit on the first number and already came prepared with throat spray and a tall hot beverage that was pretty full (she didn't need to tip it back much every time she took a sip). So not in the best shape for a performance, but the new songs came off great, including the new album's rocking arrangement of Bob Marley's "So Much Trouble In The World" (Mavis wasn't there FYI) and the band was especially great. One thing that stood out was the touch of frailness and unsteadiness in her voice. I thought that was due to the circumstances, but listening to the album now, it's actually there on the same songs played in-store, it's just that we were hearing her live without any of the echo or effects applied to her vocal on the album. It kind of gives everything an added punch, as if the stakes were heightened with a greater feeling of persevering through pain and exhaustion.

She had that stroke in 2020. When I saw her in 2023 she had not yet returned to playing guitar regularly as I recall.

Oh yeah, I know - I actually saw her at one of her first shows following the stroke, opening for Bonnie Raitt. Surprisingly, a lot of people in the audience didn't know, because towards the end of her set, someone asked why she wasn't playing the guitar, and she said "I can't yet, I had a stroke..." Before she could continue, a large part of the audience audibly gasped or moaned. At the time, she also needed help to get around, and that was also the case last night, but she still sings great and did the last couple of times I saw her. (Didn't pull out any throat spray either, which is why it seemed like a clear giveaway that she caught a bug recently.)

https://ottawa.citynews.ca/2023/10/09/lucinda-williams-talks-about-writing-and-performing-rock-n-roll-after-her-stroke/

The 2020 stroke affected her left side and therefore her ability to play guitar which she had previously used to write songs herself. With exercise she has gotten some left hand strength back, but per this article is collaborating more with others in both songwriting and at gigs as her strength to play the guitar well enough is not back yet

She did a show last night at her club on the LES. I wasn't there - it sold out by the time I found out, and probably fast - but she was supposedly much better, sounding great and looking much happier. She still isn't playing the guitar, but Doug Pettibone and Marc Ford have been really good, leaning more into a blues-rock sound. Something about the new album feels very '60s to me, but so far, I found it very enjoyable. (I don't think the album's "officially" out yet, but to get into the Rough Trade show, you had to purchase the CD or LP, all signed by Lucinda, and they handed those out as you went in.)

That place always seems to be pretty crowded when she is not playing there.