10/2 Town Hall

OK, first I enjoyed reading all the posts, hearing different takes on last night’s CWGR show. Some great insights!

So here’s my opinion on Town Hall’s Car Wheels night.

The whole vibe of this show was so totally different from last week’s gig at the Keswick in Philly, where the audience was enthusiastic, supportive and totally into the show. Yeah in Philly Lou stopped one of the songs, abandoned it, and then reworked the whole first set, telling the audience, “You all are listening so intently, that I can’t afford to make another mistake!” Later she did the did the song solo acoustic during one of two encores. She was lovely, kind to all, and emerged from her tour bus after the show to sign autographs and talk to a small group of fans. The show was professional and the artist was in control.

At Town Hall Tuesday, Lou started out great, but had a bad attitude going in, as she later admitted; that soon got in the way, and things went from bad to worse. It was awkward at times. Lou was moody, she overreacted to the Time Out review, the songs, and the audience, which was disrespectful and at times out of control, and to the band, but then, she didn’t like Doug showing up late for the second set, and who knows what else went on that we didn’t see or hear.

Lu used the second set to unfurl the story of Car Wheels. We saw the nature of her relationship with Earle and how they play off each other. Some guests worked and others did not. In the end we got a great Car Wheels set and a whole lesson about what it means to be Lucinda: perfectionist, egotist, uncompromising, emotional, vulnerable, combative, and experimental; we had the Lu who wrote all those damn songs by living a life in which she took a lot of grief and probably gave back measure for measure.

No matter who you are or how many songs are in your catalog, it takes guts to take the whole thing out on tour and real vision to record ten of the shows.

As far as the song book goes, I think Lucinda has been using it for five or six years. I was able to catch Charlie Louvin open a few shows for her this year. What really stood out was that although Charlie is 80 years old he didn’t need a book or lyric sheets to do any of his songs. Lucinda is a generation younger than him and needs that book. The only time Charlie had a piece of paper was when he came on at the end of Lucinda’s set to do a duet on “Get Right With God”, which is a Lucinda Williams song.
To each, his (or her) own.

During one of the LA shows (I wasn’t there, unfortunately, but have the CDs) she mentions the notebook between songs. She said something to the effect that she probably doesn’t need it, but it comforts her. She called it her “Linus blanket”. So, it sounds like it is more of a psychological thing than a real necessity – I see nothing wrong with that. I’ve seen her 10 times, she’s always had it, and never once did I find it a distraction. IMHO, if it makes her feel more secure, it means a better show for us, so it’s a good thing.

Tom

@i’ve lost it wrote:

Is it so hard to look past the lyric book and focus on the music and poetry?

Nope! 😀

Tom

I was there on 10/2 & although the stop/ start of the couple songs wasn’t necessary from where I was sitting (who knows what it sounds like when you’re the one singing?), I enjoyed the show overall & thought she was in great voice. At least she was good natured & kind of self-deprecating and somewhat apologetic about her finicky mood. She also seemed appreciative that the audience didn’t throw things and/or boo her. We had seen her at the State Theatre in New Brunswick a few years ago & I remember how she raved about how great everything sounded to her. So I guess it just depends on the venue &/or her mood of the night.

Kind of a mellow crowd, but that’s not a bad thing in that venue – the sound was great & the guitars roared at times (sweet!), although Jim Lauderdale could hardly be heard on backup vocals (I don’t think it was the mike, which sounded fine when others used it). I kind of wished I had gone to the Irving Plaza shows where it’s more of an open/ bar feel but no regrets.

Anyhoo, great to see Steve Earle out there, bad hairdude & all – I’m a huge fan. (His hair drives my wife crazy, too.) He looked a little lost during the first song when he played the harmonica (step up to the mike, Steve & get some background vocals going), but the duets with LW (especially the new Jailhouse song) were excellent, as was his solo Ellis Unit One. like LW, despite years of performing, he sometimes seems to be naturally uncomfortable during the quieter moments of the shows.

Jesse Malin & Fionn Regan were OK, & made it a little different, but having them appear alone seemed a little odd. Bringing them out to join LW & the band would have been a little better approach, I think. I think they’re both talented & would be worth seeing on their own.

It was great to see Car Wheels start to finish – what a great album – the highlights for me were Car Wheels, Jailhouse Tears & Honey Bee (nice to see LW & the band really cut loose & rock out). I will definitely go see her again in the future – at least she’s real & stays true to herself & to her music, You have to respect that & cut her some slack for the occasional oops, I figure. Wish I had picked up a CD of the show but forgot all about it on the way out. Nuff said.

@caterpillar wrote:

Exactly- she is a poet. I have been to see poets and authors- they all read their work. Music is her medium, but she is a poet.

Now that you mention that, (and not to belabor the point about the lyric book, but) I was fortunate enough to see the “Poetry Spoken, Poetry Sung” show in Nashville a couple of years ago with Lu & her Dad, the poet Miller Williams. Mr. Williams read his poetry from notes, not reciting it from his head if memory serves.

So, maybe she gets it from her Dad? 😀

Tom

I know she had the lyric book the first time I ever saw her, which was in 1998. It looked pretty well-used then.