Northampton, MA 3/10/09

Good report, Tim. You got to hear Blue!

Thanks for the setlist and reports… I was awaiting Tim’s review of the “new” Buick 6…

I enjoyed the show, but there is a hole there without Doug Pettibone. The “essence” of Lu’s music is missing.

Tim, you are definitely right about the hole. You can’t see a show now and not feel Doug’s absence. I join in singing all the praises of doug that have been posted here, and agree that Lucinda’s band the last few years was amazing. Yet it’s possible the new incarnation of Buick 6 could bring out more of Lucinda in other ways. The show I saw in Montclair put a focus back on Lucinda, who was more subtle and nuanced than I was expecting.

Everything changes and evolves, and thus Lu gets new creative opportunities to keep it fresh.

It’s early to judge how the band is going to sound down the road. I was not disappointed with the band. I am looking forward to hearing how they sound next time i get to a show.

I think the “essence” is Lucinda. (Of course, I’d pay full ticketbastard prices to see her even if she lost her entire band and was out there all by herself with just an acoustic guitar.) 🙂

With the new band some of the songs that really blew me away this tour were different than in the old B6 configuration. I normally gravitate toward a more rocking sound, but some of the slower tunes like Blue, Greenville, Side of The road and the blues numbers (Can’t Let Go, Things We Used To Do, Disgusted) seemed to really jump out with the new band. With Doug wailing away stuff like Joy, Rigtheously, Rock Star and particularly in my opinion Unsuffer Me really shined. It may take a while for a combination of the setlists and the band to gell.

when I talked to Susannah in montclair, she was very impressed that stoger (only she used his real name) was her most frequent visitor at shows (she brought it up!) — but i’m sure lefty and tim can make an impression too!

http://blogs.courant.com/eric_danton_sound_check/2009/03/lucinda-williams-calvin-theatr.html

Review: Lucinda Williams at the Calvin Theatre
By Eric R. Danton
on March 11, 2009 12:56 PM

Sometimes Lucinda Williams is hotter than a $2 pistol on Saturday night; sometimes she’s more subdued.

The veteran singer and songwriter was a little of both Tuesday at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton, Mass., where her less boisterous side held sway early on in the two-hour, 22-song performance.

Not only did she start with the lower-key stuff, she front-loaded the set with older material, too, opening with “I Just Wanted to See You So Bad,” from her self-titled 1988 album. Williams dug even further back, playing the twangy country-blues title track from 1980’s “Happy Woman Blues,” then fast-forwarding to the wry country-rocker “I Lost It” from her 1998 breakthrough, “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.”
She rounded out the opening salvo with the “Pineola,” from 1992’s “Sweet Old World,” and she sang as if the lacerating story of a friend’s suicide was as fresh and painful as when she wrote it.

Williams was six songs in before she played “Plan to Marry,” a tune from last year’s “Little Honey.” Her four-piece backing band left her alone on stage with an acoustic guitar to sing the somber apologia for the desperate optimism about love that underlies the hurt and heartache that sometimes go with it.

There’s a rugged beauty to Williams’ voice that has deepened over the years. She sang “Plan to Marry” in low tones that cracked the way a fire does as it runs out of fuel, and her voice reverberated around the hushed theater with aching majesty on “Blue.”

Her newer material came toward the middle of the set. A handful of songs from “Little Honey” included the blustery “Real Love,” while Williams took on the role of experienced elder with hard-learned advice on the cautionary “Little Rock Star,” a song that built from quiet, rueful observations to searing guitar breaks.

The intensity built in volume as the set progressed, and Williams and her band delivered a brawny rendition of her unsettling rocker “Changed the Locks.” After stomping determinedly through the accusatory “Joy,” they ended the main set with the sing-songy appeal for romantic generousity, “Righteously.”

Her encore consisted entirely of covers, which spanned the decades. First was her solo-acoustic version of an old blues standard, “Motherless Children,” followed by vintage blues tunes written by Son Jackson (“Hard Time Killing Floor Blues”) and Skip James (“Disgusted”). She ended with a different sort of blues: “It’s a Long Way to the Top” by AC/DC.

Williams’ band, Buick Six, opened with a set of instrumental tunes, including a Led Zeppelin medley.

STEEL CAGE DEATH MATCH. NO HOLDS BARRED. THIS HAS PAY-PER-VIEW WRITTEN ALL OVER IT. ❗

Wishful thinking, no doubt, LWj, but I think we’re in for an excellent show this Sat. I believe Fuji will be there…who else is coming to the Flower City?