Minneapolis Shows

I am sorry the you are upset, but please allow me to answer. First-yes the idea was mine. We decided that we wanted to do a few solo shows in small intimate settings right before the album came out and the Dakota was one place that I thought of. I was surprised at how fast the ticket sales went for these shows, and we were offered a third show but we couldn’t fit in. The live music market is very hard to judge right now and we generally err on the safe side. Obviously knowing what I know now we probably could have done 4 or 5 nights there, and I really wish that would’ve happened, however there was no way of knowing that until it was too late. The general plan for the solo shows was to play a few places that we couldn’t do with a band, and also to play places that we felt we could come back to with the band later in the year and that is the case with Mpls. We do plan on coming back with the band a little later in the year. I am watching this forum and if we end up with a few extra tickets I will contact the people in here to see if they still want to go. I can’t make any guarantees, but I am keeping track in case I do end up with a few extras.

Just got off the phone confirming this–because of overwhelming demand we are now adding a 3rd solo show in Mpls on 2/22.

Blurb about the 3rd Minneapolis show. It’s mentioned this is a solo acoustic show. Oh, and that she’s the queen of Americana. 8)

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/blogs/115262059.html?

After selling out two shows in a few days, Lucinda Williams has added a third one at the Dakota Jazz Club. Tickets ($50 and $60) to her Feb. 22 gig will go on sale Monday.

The queen of Americana is playing solo acoustic shows to preview her exceptional new CD, “Blessed,” which will be released March 1. In a recent interview from Los Angeles, she promised to play material from her entire career as well as a different set list every night.

The Dakota gigs, Feb. 20-22, are her smallest shows in the Twin Cities since her debut at the 7th Street Entry at First Avenue. She did play a duo show with guitarist Doug Pettibone at the O’Shaughnessy in St. Paul in 2006.

I just got a google alert that other Minneapolis shows were cancelled tonight because of the snow, but that Lu’s show was still on. Probably she’s the only one with a driver who knows how to maneuver in the snow. Be safe everyone. 🙂

“Snow covers the streetlamps and the windowsills, the buildings, and the brittle crooked trees”

@West Words wrote:

I just got a google alert that other Minneapolis shows were cancelled tonight because of the snow, but that Lu’s show was still on. Probably she’s the only one with a driver who knows how to maneuver in the snow. Be safe everyone. 🙂

“Snow covers the streetlamps and the windowsills, the buildings, and the brittle crooked trees”

Such a great song West Words.
Minneapolis is a song Lu doesn’t do very often and it is one I’ve been unable to find a video of, so let’s listen to it from NPR, scroll down to WWT.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15963253
So glad Lu’s bus made it ,it looks like a snow day also in Southern Ontario where I am also.
lwj

Minneapolis looks treacherous. Safe travels, everyone!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41696492/ns/us_news/

BTW…loved the NYC story, WW.

@Lafayette wrote:

Minneapolis looks treacherous. Safe travels, everyone!
INDEED, BUT I TRUST THE NEW ENGLISH WILL NAVIGATE THE ROADS OUT OF TOWN TOWARD WISCONSIN IN FINE FETTLE COUPLE OF DAYS FROM NOW. . .TOM, CARE TO SHARE THAT STORY OF LATE ARRIVAL INTO MN?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41696492/ns/us_news/

BTW…loved the NYC story, WW.

Good recap of Dakota # 1. Click on link to see pics. 🙂

http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2011/02/lucinda_william_1.php

Last Night
Lucinda Williams at Dakota Jazz Club, 2/20/11
By Andrea Swensson, Mon., Feb. 21 2011 @ 1:09AM

Snowstorms be damned. While over a foot of snow came wafting down from the clouds last night, the Dakota Jazz Club was dry and packed for the first of three sold-out solo performances by Lucinda Williams.

“You guys are great,” laughed owner Lowell Pickett, introducing the performers for the evening. “For every person who gave up their seat for tonight’s show because of the snow, we had two more dying to take their place.”

As the orange flicker of snowplow lights flashed across the back wall of the Dakota’s expansive main floor, young Shreveport, Louisiana native Dylan LeBlanc warmed the crowd with a set of sparse, somber alt-country ballads. It was LeBlanc’s second time playing in the Cities, his first appearance taking place only a few weeks prior when he opened for Lissie at the Cedar Cultural Center, and it was clear from his shy stage presence and reserved mumbling between songs that the 20-year-old Rough Trade signee is still adjusting to life as a performer. Nonetheless, his voice had an otherworldly quality to it that caught the audience’s attention, and his songs had an underlying eeriness to them that was reminiscent of a solo performance by Ryan Adams or, as my date suggested, maybe Robin Pecknold of the Fleet Foxes.

​After a brief break, Lucinda Williams emerged with such unassuming fanfare that it took a minute for the crowd to quiet down. “Y’all can keep on talkin’ and drinkin’ if you want,” deadpanned Williams. “I don’t mind.”

And just like that, the crowd was hers.

Williams took advantage of the rare solo performance to talk at length with the audience, setting up almost every song with some back story or context. At one point, while setting up “Metal Firecracker,” she told the whole sordid tale of her love affair and breakup with the former bass player who inspired the song. “I may as well just start saying all this stuff,” she said, shaking her head mid-saga. “It’s either that, or save it for my memoirs.”

Armed with only an acoustic guitar and a three-ring binder full of lyrics, Williams wielded her voice like a weapon, cutting through the air and allowing it to fill the entire room, then reigning it back in when it was almost too much to bear. The flawless sound system only served to further accentuate every scoff and crack in her vocal delivery, like punctuation marks at the ends of her lines of lyrics about heartbreak and desire.

​ ​Lucinda’s set was heavy on new material from her soon-to-be-released album, Blessed (“It’s Blessed, not Bless-ed,” she stressed), but with a whopping 20 songs in her main set and another four in the encore, it gave her plenty of time to pluck out songs from throughout her lengthy career. Actually, she managed to squeeze in seven of the 13 tracks from her first commercially successful album, 1998’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, compared to just five from Blessed.

For the encore, she brought out Minnesota native (and current Austin, Texas resident) Randy Weeks, who wrote “Can’t Let Go” from Car Wheels, and his moaning and chugging electric guitar accompaniments quickened the pace and made for an energized conclusion to a night of pensive and soul-baring songcraft.

​
​Personal bias: I’d never seen Lucinda live, but I’ve been a fan of her music for at least a decade.
The crowd: Prim and proper, a stark contrast to Williams’ gritty tales.
Overheard in the crowd: The clinking of wine glasses and silverware as people finished their dinners during the performance; some heartfelt but off-tempo clapping during “Can’t Let Go.”
Random notebook dump: “My band is starting to get worried.” — Williams, talking about how much she has enjoyed playing solo for a change.
For more photos: See our complete slideshow by Tony Nelson.

Set List:
Greenville
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Pineola
Memphis Pearl
Port Arthur (tribute to Janis Joplin)
Lake Charles
Crescent City
I Don’t Know How You’re Living
Ugly Truth
Somebody Somewhere (Don’t Know What He’s Missing Tonight) (Loretta Lynn, written by Lola Jean Dillon)
Metal Firecracker
Concrete and Barbed Wire
Buttercup
Kiss Like Your Kiss
Lonely Girls
Blue
Side of the Road
Born to Be Loved
Blessed
Honeybee

Encore (with Randy Weeks on electric guitar):
Something About What Happens When We Talk
Can’t Let Go
Changed the Locks
Joy