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@Tim wrote:
It’s amazing how differently people reacted to this record. Some loved it & some really disliked it. Here’s another posting about it:
Turin, Los Angeles
More money, more money, Lu. She’s obviously got it down pat: The more people I get to know and use for songs, the more money I make and the more stars i get attached to my reviews. And I get pity points and everyone thinks I’m so analytical and brilliant while the people I write about are forced to deal with being used for personal and professional profit. She used her mom’s own demise for profit. That’s the lowest thing I can think of doing. Have you no shame, old woman?I could write a Lucinda Williams song at this point. They’re all the same. She hates men. Hates them. (but she hides under a feminist label so she’ll be safe with mother jones and salon and all those meaningless rags)But she needs material so she can afford her wine and her airbrushed photoshoots to hide her aarp status. So she finds a poor bloke, buys him some drinks or twenty and sleeps with him then picks every single detail of his existence apart and turns it in as a song. I can’t imagine ever being one of these people. I mean no wonder she’s always miserable. Ever heard of karma Lucinda? It called, along with all your ex-lovers (who are awakening from their drunken stupor right about now and showering in bleach and valtrex They said I told you so! Keep wallowing. Keep cashing in. Your shameless. Your mother would be hurt and appauled. And so am I. Will Never support someone whose m.o. is all about profit and self pity again.Yikes. I can’t believe how completely out of touch this guy is. What he calls “profiting from her mom’s demise” I call putting your heart and soul into your music. Yeah, Lucinda has talked a lot about how West was shaped in part by her mother’s death – so what? All great artists take something personal and use it as the catalyst to create their work. I don’t think Lucinda was exploitative in any way. And I don’t know where this guy gets the impression that Lucinda’s a man-hater…I’ve never gotten that vibe from any of her music. So she’s a man-hater because she’s written a few F-you songs? Ridiculous. And I guess this guy doesn’t think that musicians should continue working into their middle age, judging by all of the cracks about Lucinda’s age. Yeah, she’s in her 50s – so what? I guess the implication that she’s irrelevant because she’s not 25 anymore pretty much proves that this guy’s tirade is truly irrelevant and out of touch. Nobody has to like Lucinda’s music, but to accuse her of all those things really pisses me off.
Thanks for posting the comment, though, Tim.
scabrous1 (or should I say, neighbor :wink:), I’d say you should rush out and buy Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. That, to me, is the Lucinda album that’s up there with albums like Dylan’s mid-’60s output – an essential album that everyone, not just Lucinda fans, should own. After that, it’s a bit of a toss-up.
If you’re really digging Essence, World Without Tears and West might be the logical choices after that. Personally, I’d go with the self-titled album and then Sweet Old World after Car Wheels because I love that period of her career. I think you can leave out Happy Woman Blues and Ramblin’ until you have all of her more recent albums – though I do like both of those in their own right.
I hope Lucinda comes back to Madison again soon – I went to the ’06 show at the Barrymore and it was great. Back then I was living in Appleton – now that I’m down here it’d be even better if she played there again. Although any small, intimate venue would be fantastic.
Yeah, I’m the same one. I was also pretty active on the Dylan Pool before that went down, and less so on the new one. Who were you over there, Snaggletooth?
You know, I never would have thought of Dylan for that duet, but I bet it would sound great. And my two favorite musicians together…that would be a dream come true.
I’d imagine that this goes without saying, but I’ll put it out there anyway: it would be great if Lucinda did another 5-night, 5-album stand in ’08 – somewhere in the Midwest (Chicago?) for all us folks who couldn’t make it out to either coast, but thought that the idea was great.
grasshopper, that’s a great story. I imagine there aren’t many people who can lay claim to meeting Lucinda long before she was famous.
I just remembered my favorite meeting Lucinda story. A couple years ago when I was first discovering her music, a guy on one of the Dylan message boards met her after a show and posted some pictures of himself and his girlfriend (or sister, I can’t remember) with Lucinda. According to his story, she had invited the two of them to come along on the rest of the tour (which was a week or so from being over, but still!) The kicker? He turned her down because he couldn’t miss classes that week! I’d have said yes in a heartbeat – of course, it helped that a couple of my professors were huge Lucinda fans and totally would’ve considered it an excused absence. 😉
Definitely a big thank-you to Lucinda, the band, the crew, and everybody who made the 2007 U.S. tours very enjoyable. Though I couldn’t make the LA or NY shows, I did get to see two great spring shows and a very good summer show. I sure hope Chicago and Wisconsin will be on her list of stops next year.
And I also would like to thank Inside Job for taking the time and effort to respond to our questions whenever he can and shedding some light on what goes on “behind the scenes.” I realize that the level of engagement on boards like this is always going to be up to the artist and management ultimately, but I for one really appreciate having an opportunity to give feedback to Lucinda’s people and get responses in return. The situation with the live CDs really demonstrated to me that people care what we as fans think – seems like that would be obvious, but unfortunately it’s not always clear with other artists. I’m a huge Dylan fan and I can’t ever remember the slightest bit of inside information being shared with fans, nor any kind of “official” response to fan comments or concerns. Granted, I’m sure a lot of that is his own decision, but the situation we’re in as Lucinda fans is still infinitely better. So thanks again for keeping us fans in the loop.
I haven’t met her yet, but I’ve tried…it seems that I’m unlucky, because I’ve hung around outside her bus after a few of the shows I’ve been to, but each time it’s been a night where she wasn’t up to meeting with fans (totally understandable, of course). I’ve talked to a ton of people who’ve met her, and they’ve all said that same thing – that she’s incredibly gracious and friendly and appreciative of her fans. Hopefully sooner or later I’ll get a chance to tell her thanks for all of the music. But hey, at least it’s possible to meet her after a show…I hold out hope for that, but I think I’ve got a better chance of winning the lottery than I do of meeting Bob Dylan.
I did meet Merle Haggard once, though…that was pretty cool.
Thanks for the reviews, folks…sounds like it was another great show. I’d love to hear the duets with Steve Earle, especially on You’re Still Standing There…I love that song.
Thank you for making these available. I really appreciate the chance to hear these shows since there was no way I could make any of them in person.
Not to sound greedy, but as others have already said – it would even better to have the second sets available as well, since there are so many special guests and rare performances. 😉
Wow…I’d give body parts to see Lucinda doing the Jackson duet. Hopefully either the second sets from each night will be included in a release, or somebody taped them and will share…these sets sound just as essential as the album sets!
Thanks so much for the detailed reviews; it’s great to hear about a show even if I wasn’t lucky enough to be there.
Two comments for Lucinda and the powers that be: one, these shows are a great idea, and it would be be fantastic if she gave them another try next year – say, 5 nights in Chicago, maybe? 😀
Two, please, please, PLEASE make these CDs available online for those of us who couldn’t make it to the shows. I suspect you’d make enough sales to make it worthwhile, and it would be wonderful for us fans to have.
This is a great idea…but let me second SM in saying that it would be great if the albums were also for sale on the website or something, so that way those of us who can’t make any of the shows can still buy them. I know I’d buy at least a couple for sure.
Everybody’s entitled to their opinion and all, but a few words in defense of Lucinda:
–first, say what you will about her reliance on the lyric book, but it doesn’t seem to affect the quality of the performance. The songs are delivered with as much emotion as if all of the lyrics were being recalled from memory…to say that she “reads” them is technically true, but it’s not like she’s doing it dispassionately.
–as for her drinking, sure, you can tell she gets a bit loaded onstage sometimes, especially from her banter and stuff like that, but in 7 shows (all of which she’s appeared to have been drinking at least some) I’ve never seen her mess up a song because she’s “drunk.” Like any other performer, she’ll flub a word or two every night, but her mistakes are few and far between.
–as for the quality of her lyrics, I agree that many of her songs, especially the more recent ones, are far from profound lyrically. But if you’re divorcing the words from the rest of the song, then you’re missing out. Two of her weakest songs lyrically – Come On and Honey Bee – are perhaps the most fun and energetic songs to see her perform live. And the fact that some of her songs have simple lyrics has no effect on the great lyrics of some of her other songs. Look up Pineola, Ventura, Car Wheels, or Drunken Angel, just to name a few, and come back and tell me all of her lyrics are terrible.Look, I’m not a blindly loyal fan; there are Lucinda songs I don’t like, and in fact I’m not all that crazy about the new album. And of course I’m not saying that everybody has to like her. It’s fine if you saw her and you didn’t like the show; I just don’t think it’s fair to question her talent and integrity as a musician.
The setlist:
Ventura (aborted)
Are You Alright? (aborted)
Are You Alright?
Fruits Of My Labor
Words
Those Three Days
Out Of Touch
Concrete And Barbed Wire
Can’t Let Go
When I Stop Dreaming*
Get Right With God*
Still I Long For Your Kiss
Come On
Unsuffer Me
Honey Bee
Righteouslyencore:
Like A Rose
Steal Your Love
West* with Charlie Louvin
I was expecting an exciting setlist considering that Lucinda’s been digging out some old songs for her upcoming shows, but on that front I was disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, she could play Those Three Days, Ventura, Righteously, and Still I Long For Your Kiss at every single show and I’d be happy…but when only one song comes from before Car Wheels (and granted, Like A Rose was a beautiful choice), I’m going to be a little disappointed.
Overall, the show was great. It got off to a shaky start when she started coughing during Ventura and she decided to move on to Are You Alright? – and then started coughing again and had to stop in the middle of the song. Luckily, she was able to keep going after that and her voice sounded wonderful. Highlights included the always-magical Still I Long For Your Kiss, the rare Like A Rose, and the unforgettable duets with Charlie Louvin. To see her singing with a legend like him was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, especially when they traded verses on Get Right With God. I was hoping to hear her new song Honey Bee and she didn’t disappoint; it’s nothing like I expected it to be. I was expecting another slow love song a la The Knowing or Tears of Joy, but instead it turned out to be a deafening punk rock number. I thought it was a complete success – I can see why she said it’s so much fun to play every night.
The real disappointment was the short (3 song) encore. The show ended right at 11 pm, and although she’d gotten through 18 songs (counting Ventura) she’d only played for just over an hour and a half. Now I wouldn’t mind if she seemed tired or if she simply didn’t want to play any longer, but you could tell that it was a curfew issue; she seemed like she was going strong and having a great time. She either needs to start her shows earlier or suck it up and pay the extra money for the show to go on past 11. After seeing some high-energy shows with long encores, it’s frustrating to have a show end abruptly.
In any case, I enjoyed my 6th Lucinda show and I’ll look forward to seeing her the next time she comes around. I only wish I could go to those New York and Los Angeles shows.
