Lucinda Williams C/D?

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.

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