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| Photo not from gig |
Without a new album to promote on this tour, Lucinda
Williams had a relatively free hand to liberally reflect upon her thirty
five year recording career. On the back of an all request show at the recent
Gateshead date, there were plenty of track suggestions from a Birmingham Town
Hall crowd awash with adulation. Although, no doubt, a few personal favourites
were omitted, the set list Lucinda decided upon could hardly be faulted and met
the approval of both stalwart fans and more casual observers.
By drawing on material from seven of her albums along with a
pair of quality covers and new songs, Lucinda served up her brand of roots
music laced with a vocal style that aches through the multi genre heartland of a
nation defined by its sounds. Whether offering an outstanding country duet with
sidekick Doug Pettibone in ‘Jailhouse
Tears’ or capturing the depression era vibes via Skip James ‘Hard Time Killing Floor Blues’, you had
your music senses continually stretched.
Throw into the mix the urban grit of Springsteen’s ‘Factory’ and the good honest rock n’ roll of ‘Honey Bee’ then the aurora from a lifetime spent searching for the
musical soul of a land couldn’t fail to engulf the minds of those present.
Perpetually switching between acoustic and electric guitar,
Lucinda seemed more at home with the amplified version which interacted well
with Pettibone’s lead and pedal steel. With no need for percussion, the trio
was completed by David Sutton on bass and together they spoiled the audience right
from the opening strains of the Mary Chapin Carpenter cut ‘Passionate Kisses’ to the Grammy winning closer ‘Get Right with God’. From a personal
point of view, this collaboration connected more than the conventional rock set
up that supported Lucinda on a previous Midlands date a few years back.
The between song banter was succinct enough to get a flavour
of each track and though an essence of warmth will always struggle to emanate from
the stage, the passion, honesty and confidence reflects a songwriter who can
comfortably reside with some of the Americana music icons. When you can call on
tracks from a gold selling album as good as 1998’s CAR WHEELS ON A GRAVEL ROAD
then you start off on the front foot and Lucinda did so on five occasions
during the evening. While ‘Joy’ and ‘Drunken Angel’ were met with instant
approval, the gig’s stand out track was the evocative ‘Lake Charles’, the Louisiana hometown of Lucinda, although much of her
time has been spent in Houston, Austin, Los Angeles and Nashville.
After lengthy bouts of album inactivity in the 80’s and 90’s,
they seem to come on a steady regular basis now. The couple of new songs aired
during the evening including ‘Everything
but the Truth’ featured in the new Lone Ranger movie, indicate the creative
well of Lucinda’s writing talents is far from dry. Whether any future release
can match the highs of CAR WHEELS… is probably unlikely but the continued
activity of Lucinda, now in her sixth decade, both recording and touring will
ensure her legions of UK fans are kept satisfied.
Earlier it was intimated that a previous Lucinda Williams
gig had something missing. Four years from that Leamington Spa show, full
redemption was now complete and an important and integral artist of contemporary
US roots music now possessed her rightful place in the upper echelons of my live
music experience.