Lucinda Williams C/D?

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.