NEW RECORD UPDATE – "BLESSED"

yes, yes. i’m rooting for an european tour in 2011 as if i could get to europe without any kind of financial issues and serious consequences for my professional life. but if it happens i’ll try my best to be there, although nothing beats seeing a show with your friends, and i won’t have a single friendly soul in freezing finland.

let’s just consider that the stunning (olympic city! 2016!) rio de janeiro has twice the population of finland (and thousands and thousands of foreign tourists), buenos aires (argentina) something like that, and são paulo is like 4 times finland.

the beauty of uncharted territories… i’m sure there’s a japanese somewhere puzzled by the fact that lucinda never did a show in tokyo. while i really understand what a bold move would be a tour in south america, i think it’s possible, and i think it would work out, and i think it’d be a rewarding experience for LW.

i’ll stop now, and i won’t get back to the take-a-look-at-south-america routine any time soon. i feel like a poor homeless man crashing a rich people’s party. i’m just saying that there’s a world besides europe and australia/NZ for LW. of course you all realize that, but i really feel a bit lonely here because there’s basically no other third world kid posting regularly, so it’s pretty easy for you – and even me, that’s what’s sad about it – to forget that there’re, you know, possibilities outside the same tidy orderly european cities over and over again. sometimes i can’t even picture a lucinda show here – lately i imagine myself in paris to see her, but not in rio, and that’s awful.

i’m rooting for an european tour this coming year. i hope it happens. i’ll go and i’ll sing every verse of every song (i’ll try not to be annoying) and shout ‘this is my favorite song’ as soon as i recognize ‘2 kool’ (it only takes 2 seconds) – and i’ll shout ‘mama you sweet’ between songs until she plays it. greetings to you all.

the thousand miles between us will disappear some day – west.

THE TOUR-
I do have at least a little solid info on the tour front. We will definitely be doing two dates in Toronto opening for Levon Helm at Massey Hall on March 4 & 5. We will also be doing a show in Austin during SXSW 3/18 or 19 I think that will be part of a special Lost Highway Records 10th Anniversary event. That should be quite a night as I know they are reaching out to a lot of special guests to be a part of that. It would be safe to assume that there will be dates that will take us from Toronto to Austin but at this point I don’t know what those will be. We have also discussed dates prior to Toronto but until the record release date gets set those will be tentative.

Oh. Mr Overby…what are the odds? I will be in New Orleans on a business trip (2011) with my husband, one he planned months ago after our Sugar Bowl trip (he/we loved the place so much he suggested it as a meeting spot for one of his quarterly meeting commitments). As it turns out, the trip is scheduled during the first part of Jazz Fest! I’m so excited, and the thought of Lu playing that festival while I was visiting has this girl all a twitter, even with enduring five freaking long weeks of constant pain. So, am I dreaming large here?

@TOverby wrote:

Wow-Are you reading my email? I just confirmed the N.O. Jazzfest for 5/5 this afternoon. Quite a coincidence that you would inquire on the very day it was made official.
I also confirmed another show today- 5/8 in Houston as part of the International Festival.
More dates coming.

😆 Sometimes I can channel but, yeah, this is bizarro coincidental!

I’m ready to shake my husband out of bed and ask him exact dates. I have fingers crossed the timing works out. I have mentioned to other members seeing Lu in NO is on my bucket list. D*mn, I hope it works out!

Tom, Any idea of when a European tour might happen? Im particularly hopeful Lucinda might play Brighton in England.

Also I read that there were a lot of songs written for “West” that werent used on that record, While some might have been used on “Little Honey” or the new album, an idea I had going on in my mind is that if there are unreleased songs lying about that are damn good but might never be heard by us has it ever occured to use them in a similar way to how lost Dylan treasures have turned up on the Bootleg Series.
It seems Lucinda writes pretty prolifically and any lost songs might be of interest to us her fans. 😀

Can’t wait for new record.
1/3 that’ll be 1st March then? Rather than 3rd Jan? Wouldn’t it be great if us Brits & Yanks had a common language 😉

And yeap another vote here for European tour 2011. Would make my year 😀

Just posted from High Road Touring.
Tue Jan 4 ’11 10:01 am
Lucinda Williams’ Blessed Set for March 1 Release on Lost Highway
LUCINDA WILLIAMS’ BLESSED SET FOR MARCH 1st RELEASE ON LOST HIGHWAY

NEW ALBUM CO-PRODUCED BY GRAMMY AWARD-WINNER DON WAS

Nashville, TN – Blessed, the stunning new album from three-time Grammy Award-winner Lucinda Williams is set for release on March 1st by Lost Highway. Considered by many to be one of America’s greatest living songwriters, Williams lives up to that and more by delivering 12 new songs that cover an even wider emotional spectrum than her previous work, without moving too far in any one direction.

Blessed opens with the gritty kiss-off “Buttercup” then moves seamlessly into the sultry blues of “Born To Be Loved”. Williams delves into a heavier subject as she questions the motives for a suicide on the hard-driving “Seeing Black”, which features blistering guitar from Elvis Costello. The thoughtful title track slowly builds to a melodic climax as it offers an eye-opening look at what’s right in front of us, but too often unnoticed. The poignant and powerful “Soldier’s Song” simultaneously tells a tragic story of the soldier overseas and his wife and child back home. On the gorgeous “Kiss Like Your Kiss”, Williams lays down one of the most beautiful and fragile vocals she has ever recorded. The original version of “Kiss Like Your Kiss” appeared on the True Blood: Music From The HBO Original Series – Volume 2 and was just nominated for a Grammy Award for BEST SONG WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURE, TELEVISION OR OTHER VISUAL MEDIA.

It’s nothing new to see Williams tug at the heartstrings and stimulate the mind with her songs, but there is a vibe throughout Blessed that is unique to this album in-particular. It’s the sound of the wisdom and experience Williams has gained through her years as an uncompromising talent. Combine that with Grammy Award-winning producer Don Was at the helm, and something special is born. Was co-produced Blessed with Eric Liljestrand and Tom Overby, who co- produced Williams highly-praised Little Honey (2008). Blessed features special guests Rami Jaffe on keyboards, Matthew Sweet on vocals Greg Leisz and Elvis Costello on guitar.

The deluxe edition of Blessed will include bonus material titled The Kitchen Tapes. These are the demos Williams recorded of the songs that became Blessed right as they were born at her kitchen table, where she does much of her writing.

For more information about Lucinda Williams, please contact Jim Flammia at All Eyes Media (615) 227-2770, jim@alleyesmedia.com or Fount Lynch at Lost Highway (615) 524-7838, fount.lynch@umusic.com
lwj

@LWjetta wrote:

Just posted from Lost Highway.
TO, Is this a sneak peak of the album’s artwork?

Well, if you look at the image file’s name (i.e., “Blessed album cover.jpg”), it would appear it is indeed… 😉

Tom