Lucinda Williams C/D?

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.