Milwaukee show

The setlist:

Ventura (aborted)
Are You Alright? (aborted)
Are You Alright?
Fruits Of My Labor
Words
Those Three Days
Out Of Touch
Concrete And Barbed Wire
Can’t Let Go
When I Stop Dreaming*
Get Right With God*
Still I Long For Your Kiss
Come On
Unsuffer Me
Honey Bee
Righteously

encore:
Like A Rose
Steal Your Love
West

* with Charlie Louvin

I was expecting an exciting setlist considering that Lucinda’s been digging out some old songs for her upcoming shows, but on that front I was disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, she could play Those Three Days, Ventura, Righteously, and Still I Long For Your Kiss at every single show and I’d be happy…but when only one song comes from before Car Wheels (and granted, Like A Rose was a beautiful choice), I’m going to be a little disappointed.

Overall, the show was great. It got off to a shaky start when she started coughing during Ventura and she decided to move on to Are You Alright? – and then started coughing again and had to stop in the middle of the song. Luckily, she was able to keep going after that and her voice sounded wonderful. Highlights included the always-magical Still I Long For Your Kiss, the rare Like A Rose, and the unforgettable duets with Charlie Louvin. To see her singing with a legend like him was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, especially when they traded verses on Get Right With God. I was hoping to hear her new song Honey Bee and she didn’t disappoint; it’s nothing like I expected it to be. I was expecting another slow love song a la The Knowing or Tears of Joy, but instead it turned out to be a deafening punk rock number. I thought it was a complete success – I can see why she said it’s so much fun to play every night.

The real disappointment was the short (3 song) encore. The show ended right at 11 pm, and although she’d gotten through 18 songs (counting Ventura) she’d only played for just over an hour and a half. Now I wouldn’t mind if she seemed tired or if she simply didn’t want to play any longer, but you could tell that it was a curfew issue; she seemed like she was going strong and having a great time. She either needs to start her shows earlier or suck it up and pay the extra money for the show to go on past 11. After seeing some high-energy shows with long encores, it’s frustrating to have a show end abruptly.

In any case, I enjoyed my 6th Lucinda show and I’ll look forward to seeing her the next time she comes around. I only wish I could go to those New York and Los Angeles shows.

Singer Lucinda Williams’ show full of emotion
By PAUL KOSIDOWSKI
Special to the Journal Sentinel
Aug. 1, 2007

“It’s OK to feel good,” sang Lucinda Williams on Tuesday night during her first encore at the Pabst Theater.

The song, “Like a Rose,” goes back almost 20 years, but it’s not surprising that it has made it back onto Williams’ set list. With a bad breakup and the death of her mother behind her (events that gave her latest album, “West,” its grit and depth), and a marriage reportedly forthcoming, the reigning music queen of bittersweet loss and white-knuckle rage seems ready for joy.

And Tuesday’s 100-minute set showed that she was. Sort of. There was plenty of Williams’ dark side on display, but her writing has changed in recent years. On West, “Unsuffer Me” is a beautifully visceral reflection on the redeeming power of love. But the scorned-woman ditty, “Come On,” seems drawn from dorm-room banter. It just can’t match the primal, soul-baring rage of an earlier, similar song, “Joy” (“You took my joy, and I want it back!”).

Williams sometimes has a hard time inhabiting her songs on stage. Tuesday, she seemed to sing them phrase by phrase instead of spinning them into complete stories. She’s preparing for a marathon retrospective, a series of concerts in New York and Los Angeles in which she’ll perform every song she’s ever recorded, so one could excuse the huge binder of lyrics in front of her. But it’s a bit strange to hear those flayingly personal lyrics read off a cheat sheet.

Her voice, however, is a thing to behold – a potent combination of Emmylou Harris’s yearning warble and the Big River roar of blues greats such as Bessie Smith (she overwhelmed her guest Charlie Louvin when she sang harmony on “When I Stop Dreaming”). If you closed your eyes, the music sang forth gloriously.

A nagging cough interrupted the first few songs and gave the show a tentative start. But Williams eventually found her voice, whipping into a set that danced generously through her whole catalog. The band just rocked harder as the night rolled on, lead by Doug Pettibone’s guitar, which comes close to matching the sandpaper lyricism of Williams’ voice.

Eighty-year-old Nashville legend Louvin opened the show with a Grand Ole Opry-inspired set that showcased songs from his storied career.

Walking proof that they don’t write them like they used to, Louvin is still a soulful balladeer, even when he’s selling lines such as, “You’ve already put big ol’ tears in my eyes. Must you throw dirt in my face?”