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Gotta love the title of this pre concert interview from the Denver Post.
http://www.denverpost.com/music/ci_19300890Lucinda Williams has a request for her audience: Get loud while you listen
Ricardo Baca
Denver Post Pop Music CriticLucinda Williams likes to play “rock clubs. When everybody’s sitting there really quiet and listening — I don’t like that at all.” Lucinda Williams isn’t afraid of life on the road.
Sure, the road inspires some of the songs that fill the acclaimed songwriter’s beloved records, including this year’s “Blessed.”
But its drawbacks are also enough to make an artist reconsider such a strange, wandering lifestyle. For Williams, the occasional “off” crowd is one of the biggest pitfalls of the tour-bus life.
“The hardest part about (life on the road) is when I’m doing shows and the audiences aren’t what I’d like them to be,” Williams said in a rare interview last week, advancing her show at the Paramount Theatre on Saturday.
And how does Williams like her audiences? Quiet and at attention, hanging lovingly on her every word like classical- music aficionados?
Not quite.
“I like rock clubs,” Williams said plainly. “I like when everybody’s standing up and responding and listening at the same time. I don’t like the real polite audience thing that can make you feel really paranoid. When everybody’s sitting there really quiet and listening — I don’t like that at all.”
Williams is a rebel, and you can hear it in her songs; she sounds like a more experienced Gillian Welch mashed up with Neil Young’s singular spirit. Williams’ songs have come to define a generation of cultish alt-country.
But she is also maturing, aging, whatever you want to call it — and with each passing year or two comes another record and 10 more songs to add to her catalog. Releasing three records in the last year hasn’t been easy work. Even harder is remembering the lyrics to her many songs.
Which is why Williams has taken to using a songbook in concert. It doesn’t look all that professional — Williams’ songbook perched on a music stand in front of her on stage — but her intentions are rooted in giving her fans the best show possible.
“I don’t like having to use it, either,” Williams said of the lyric book. “But it gives me the freedom to not have to worry about the lyrics. And I do have a lot of songs, and I don’t do the same exact set every single night. And I don’t want to worry about forgetting the words, because that’s not fun. It’s just what I have to do.
“Other artists have their ways of doing it, too, with teleprompters facing them that the audience can’t see. Mine’s just more obvious. …
“I don’t know how Steve Earle does it without his lyrics in front of him.”
It makes sense. Williams is adored for her lyrics, her poetic portraits. And if you’re paying to see her live, you’d like to hear her get the words right.
Williams still takes great care in writing songs, and the creation of new work is something that still enriches her as an artist and a human.
“The songwriting process for me has always been cathartic and therapeutic, and it’s a really good way of releasing some thoughts and tension and getting it on paper and turning it into a song,” she said. “I have a bunch of stuff I’ve started and need to get back to and finish, and I’ve got a bunch of ideas for new songs.
“Writing is a real necessity for me, basically. I don’t think I could exist without being able to write. It’s part of who I am.”
At the end of the article not printed above Lu recommends 2 artists.
Over the Rhine-not surprising
Sarah Jaffe-surprising (Lu took Sarah’s new CD on the road)lwj
she sounds like a more experienced Gillian Welch mashed up with Neil Young’s singular spirit
jesus christ.
gillian & neil are close to the top of my list, but i’ll never understand these types of comparisons. doesn’t make any any any sense – plus: so lazy.
Isn’t the Paramount mere blocks from the corner of Colfax & Broadway, where news footage suggested the Occupy Wall St. protesters were being cleared out of last evening? Anybody have a report from the show?
@tntracy wrote:
@LWjetta wrote:
Sarah Jaffe-surprising (Lu took Sarah’s new CD on the road)Yes!
Tom
Maybe Sarah will join Lucinda on stage (or vice versa) on the Cayamo boat cruise in February.
lwj
Concert review and set list from the Paramount last night.
http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2011/11/lucinda-williams-denver-review-photos.php
LUCINDA WILLIAMS at PARAMOUNT | 11/12/11
About a halfway through Lucinda Williams’ two-hour set on Saturday night, it felt somebody hit a switch at the Paramount Theatre and all the sudden the place was electrified. For the first hour, the crowd of mostly middle-aged folks sat fairly complacent in their seats, but “Steal Your Love” was the game-changer.Fueled by Butch Norton’s chugging beat, the crowd clapped along and as the song gradually got faster, Norton by seemed to be hitting the drums harder and harder with pieces of drumsticks flying around and he kept grabbing new sticks. When the song was over, most of the crowd was on its feet.
“I love it when everybody gets up, drinks and dances and everything,” Williams told the audience.
From then on, Williams and her band kept the revved up the crowd on its feet by digging in to rockers like “Righteously,” “Essence,” and “Changed the Locks.” “Joy,” another rocker and one of the highlights of the night, encouraged at least one guy in the crowd to undo his ponytail and headbang. That’s how heavy the band was.
The band or the crowd didn’t let down for the rest of the night, closing out with a rowdy take on “Honey Bee” that featured some killer guitar work by Blake Mills, who played a few lightning fast riffs from “Flight of the Bumblebee” during his solo. Mills was actually on fire pretty much the whole show, showing what an insanely great guitarist he is, deft both at the slide and country picking.
While the second half of the show was no doubt much more energetic than the first half, Williams sounded just equally as good during the rockers as she did on the slower cuts early on like “Lake Charles” and the gorgeous take on “Copenhagen,” a song from her latest effort, Blessed, that she said was inspired by hearing about the sudden death of her long-time manager Frank Callari while she was touring in Copenhagen.
The first half also included “Stowaway in Your Heart,” a great new song that hasn’t been recorded yet, as well as “Tryin’ to the Get to Heaven,” which will be on Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International, slated to be released later this month.
Williams and company rode the night out in great form during the encore with “Blessed,” the Allman Brothers’ bluesy “It’s Not My Cross to Bear” and an intense take on Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.”
“Get Right With God,” the last song of the night, felt like a supercharged gospel revival.
Critic’s Notebook
Personal Bias: I started listening to Williams through a booze-hazed filter at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge in the East Village of New York City ten years ago. While I’d heard Nick Drake’s version of “Which Will” many times, I never really got the song until I heard her take on the song. It’s taken a decade to see finally see her live, and man, the gal fully knocked me out.
By the Way: Blake Mills, who opened the show with a great set, is also slated to appear on Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International.
Random Detail: Williams said there’s an animated video of “Copenhagen” made by the creator of Squidbillies, a TV series which she said could be best described as South Park on acid.
Also Read: “Lucinda Williams reveals all about her writing process in this week’s Westword.
SET LIST
Lucinda Williams
Paramount Theatre – 11/12/11
Denver, CO1. Can’t Let Go
2. Pineola
3. Drunken Angel
4. People Talkin’
5. Stowaway in Your Heart
6. 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
7. Lake Charles
8. Copenhagen
9. Born to Be Loved
10. Tryin’ to the Get to Heaven
11. Steal Your Love
12. Righteously
13. Essence
14. Changed the Locks
15. Joy
16. Honey BeeENCORE
17. Blessed
18. It’s Not My Cross to Bear
19. Rockin’ in the Free WorldENCORE 2
20. Get Right With Godlwj
(Moderator note: Formerly separate topic entitled “Denver” with one post by stoger has been merged into this other Denver show topic…)
Tom
A great photo gallery from the Paramount in Denver.
http://www.heyreverb.com/2011/11/14/lucinda-williams-paramount-denver-photos-review/
lwj
The setlist has been posted at setlist.fm…
Tom
To answer Stoger’s question –yes the Paramount was just a couple blocks from the Occupy sight which got very testy on Sat. Some of our people wandered over to and were pretty blown away by the crazy stuff they saw.
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