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LWJ, no ridicule at all, given you provided from afar links to the only real info we have about this tour debut. Thanks, and more thanks. Surely someone could give an approximate setlist, maybe our manager himself, to tide us over until the Dakota reports.
It wasn’t the Englert, but given I was “stuck” in my west TN habitat for the Friday evening, Amy Lavere at a little cafe in midtown Memphis called The Beauty Shop (yes, circular hair dryers hover over selected booths) helped ease my pangs at not being in Iowa. Perhaps I’ll start an “Amy Lavere” thread under singers & songwriters. Among other notable facts, she was produced by the late Jim Dickinson.
And Bo didn’t produce Car Wheels or Essence of course (as could be interpreted from the phrasing of that posting here), but he was a big factor, wasn’t he? I’d say the ’01 Essence tour is the last we’ll see of him as a member of Lu’s band, but one never knows. . .
@stoger wrote:
LWJ, no ridicule at all, given you provided from afar links to the only real info we have about this tour debut. Thanks, and more thanks. Surely someone could give an approximate setlist, maybe our manager himself, to tide us over until the Dakota reports.
More than welcome stoger.
I recall Tom O posting lots of set lists from the mini tour last summer.
Anyway back to the Englert.
The same person who videoed “Honey Bee” and “Changed the Locks” has now added to his You Tube page the following:
“Down the Big Road Blues”,”Disgusted”, and Loretta Lynn’s. “Somebody, Somewhere”
Would have been a memorable evening to attend.
lwjHello, all. I haven’t been on this forum since the 2007 St. Louis show, but thought I’d tell everyone a bit about last night’s show in Iowa City. I guess I should have known from it being billed “An Evening with Lucinda Williams” that it was going to be a more intimate setting. But I was still surprised when she took the stage with an acoustic guitar and no band. The first thing I said when she did her first song (can’t believe I can’t remember what it was, but it was off of Car Wheels) was “her voice sounds great!” I don’t know if it was not having a band around her, or being early in her tour, but her voice sounded the best I’ve heard it, very rich and clear. At one point, she said, “This rooms sound beautiful!” and someone said “YOU sound beautiful!”
The early part of the show (she played for about 2 hours straight, I’d say) was very mellow, with little talking to the audience. It mixed stuff from Car Wheels, and much earlier stuff. I heard “Pineola” and “Sweet Old World” in there, which caught me by surprise — LOVED IT! I remember thinking, “she’s playing a lot of suicide/death songs.” She didn’t play, in my recollection, anything off of West or World w/o Tears (I was fine with that, because I was really enjoying hearing the songs I love the most). Later on, she did some stuff off Essence and the new one (“Buttercup” and “Blessed” and “I Don’t Know How You’re Livin'”). When she played “I Don’t Know How You’re Livin’….” she said she wrote it for her brother, the same one she wrote “Are you all right?” about. And then she said “that little rascal doesn’t even know he’s famous.” She also played “Honey Bee” toward the end of the show.
In the second half of the show, she started to get a little frazzled. She said she felt really tense or something like that — but if she had never said anything, I never would have picked up on it! She forgot some chords, said the set list “had gone to hell” and said she was worried everyone would write a really critical review now. She had to start several songs over. But! Here’s the thing…I did not mind any of this at all. It only endeared me more to her.It’s not like she ever seemed off, drunk or out of control or something. It was never as if those moments (needing to start over, telling us she forgot a song she plays all the time) really ever took away from the show’s overall intensity or beauty. To me, they just made the show seem more “coffeehouse-esque” and I really appreciated the more natural feel to everything.There was some idiot behind me that said “I paid a lot of money for these tickets, come on” and I just wanted to say, “give her a break! She’s up there all by herself with just an acoustic guitar. That takes a lot of guts. If you want to go to a stadium concert, then go!” So, I’m more than willing to excuse her for all the little pauses toward the end of the show. i’d say it never took her more than a minute or so to get back into a song.
Bringing Bo Ramsey on was a good thing because he helped take some of the spotlight off her (I’m not entirely sure he was planned, or at least not for as many songs as he ended up doing). Once he got on stage, she seemed to find her focus again and the ending songs were really charged and quite different from earlier in the show. I really think they should be sure to give her some support out there a bit earlier on in future shows, even if it’s just one other guitarist. She got a standing O and did 3 songs for the encore. She ended with “Joy”. In the encore, she got political, talking about Egypt and MSNBC and Woodie Guthrie and protesting in Wisconsin. This was her most talkative of the night.
All in all, I had a great time at this concert and I’d love to see her again. The one thing that was really different from when I saw her in STL was that the crowd in Iowa City was largely of the “Boomer” generation — there were hardly any younger people there, which surprised me a bit. Not that there’s anything wrong with one crowd or the other….
Oh — the opening act, Dylan LeBlanc, was really quite good. He has an amazing voice — I’m tempted to download his CD — and did all acoustic stuff. It might have been nice had he thrown in a more upbeat tune now and then, but he seemed to be going for a kind of vibe and I was fine with that. At times, his voice reminded me a bit of Jeff Buckley.
Sorry I don’t have a good set list to offer any one, but I hope you at least enjoy reading more in detail about the show last night. All in all, I’d say the Iowa City show featured a pared-down Lucinda with a large focus on earlier work, and far less attention on her new CD. Someone actually reminded her from the audience, “What’s your new CD called?” The songs I heard off “Blessed,” I really liked. I thought the lyrics seemed stronger than “West.”
Great show, glad I went, have fun all y’all who are seeing her next in Minnesota!!
Lucinda Williams with special guest Bo Ramsey
Iowa City, Iowa, Englert Theatre
February 18, 2011Set List
Car Wheels
Pineola
Sweet Old World
Lake Charles
I Don’t Know How You’re Livin’ (from “Blessed”)
Ugly Truth (from “Blessed”)
Somebody Somewhere Don’t Know What He’s Missing (Loretta Lynn cover)
Make the World Go Away (Eddie Arnold cover)
Metal Firecracker
Concrete and Barbed Wire
Buttercup (from “Blessed”)
Drunken Angel
I Envy the Wind – with Bo Ramsey
Lonely Girls – with Bo
Am I Too Blue? – with Bo
Blessed (from “Blessed”)
Down the Big Road Blues (Mattie Delaney cover) – with Bo
Disgusted (Lil’ Son Jackson cover) – with Bo
Changed the Locks – with Bo
You Were Born to Be Loved – with Bo (from “Blessed”)
Honey Bee – with BoEncore
Get Right with God – with Bo
Hard Killing Floor Blues – with Bo
Joy – with Bo@Essence wrote:
Bringing Bo Ramsey on was a good thing because he helped take some of the spotlight off her (I’m not entirely sure he was planned, or at least not for as many songs as he ended up doing).
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if his appearance was unplanned. He is married to Pieta Brown, who is from Iowa and, AFAIK, they both currently live there…
Sorry I don’t have a good set list to offer any one, but I hope you at least enjoy reading more in detail about the show last night.
No problem for the lack of set list! I really appreciate your posting your thoughts & impressions from the show!
Tom
@LWjetta wrote:
bobmoore57
Thanks for the set list and your superb videos.
lwjIndeed, and welcome to the Lu forum!
Tom
If I am not mistaken, “Make the World Go Away” is a new cover for Lu, isn’t it? I don’t recall ever hearing of her performing it before…
Tom
@tntracy wrote:
If I am not mistaken, “Make the World Go Away” is a new cover for Lu, isn’t it? I don’t recall ever hearing of her performing it before…
Tom
Only other time I’ve heard Lu do this song was at the NYE Viper Room.
There is a You Tube of it.lwj
She did it at the Viper Room on 12/31/10 Tom. FWIW, it’s a Hank Cochran song, covered by many including Eddy Arnold.
Great report Essence! Thx for the setlist Bobmoore!
Thanks to both of you for the good narrative and the setlist respectively. Nothing indeed off West or WWT, and only one off L Honey (a stripped-down “Honeybee,” must have been fine!). I doubt there’s going to be a guest guitarist every night, but I dig what you mean about steadying Lu down on matters that the audience might not even have picked up on. I wasn’t in Des Moines in past, but apparently there is a history of one or more “meltdowns” in that city; perhaps that was in Lu’s memory. The time I did see her at Englert Iowa City was first-rate. There’s middle ground of course between “coffeehouse-esque” and arena, and that’s what most of us are used to with Lu and band. i do look forward to the more acoustic solo gigs, though I fret for Lu’s self-consciousness too. But that’s part of why she’s so great and writes such great songs. “Little rascal” is a hoot of a comment, probably she’s called him worse–as most of us have our siblings, in life or in art. Perhaps those Madison teacher unions’ protests will find their way into her Milwaukee banter later in the week, if she’s not too weary to banter on a fourth consecutive show night! Thanks again for the info.
[url][url][/url]I was at the concert at the Englert too. The description above is pretty accurate. Lucinda typically seemed a little confused at times with what she wanted to do. She became particularly flustered when her music and notes fell to the floor. Of course, none of that mattered. She sounded awesome and the addition of Bo Ramsey just ramped it up another notch. All in all, another great show.
I should have taken more video. But I did get a little of the finale, “Joy.” Its now up on youtube. Here is the link:
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