Disco Stu

I’ve still picked all the ones she’s played, I just missed the extras. 😉 If she’ll just play Sweet Old World next, I’ll have picked four.

I just gotta say again, what a very cool thing for Lucinda, Tom, and everyone to do for the fans. What a great way to spend a Thursday night, drinking wine and listening to a Lucinda show. And the sound quality is awesome, too.

Hmm, if I had to pick a dream setlist, I’d go with:

Ramblin’ On My Mind
Rolling Along/Louisiana Man (couldn’t make up my mind 🙂 )
The Night’s Too Long
Hot Blood
Jackson
Blue
Ventura
Learning How To Live

My fearless prediction? She won’t go out on a limb with only comparatively rare songs, but she won’t always pick the most obvious ones, either. Something like:

Disgusted
Happy Woman Blues
I Just Wanted To See You So Bad
Sweet Old World
Car Wheels
Essence
Those Three Days
Words

I’ll take whatever she gives us…it’ll just be cool to sit back and enjoy the webcast. (Plus, as Inside Job said, she’ll do “at least” one song from each album, so who knows?)

I was one of the poll respondents who chose the “I’m not thrilled with her new rock-and-roll sound” choice, but I’d like to elaborate on that since I don’t think it’s entirely accurate to say that. As of now, I’m only doing one show this tour (still haven’t 100% ruled out a run down to Chicago tomorrow, though) for a variety of reasons. Money is one of them; I’m not hurting too bad right now but it sure seems like a time to tighten my belt. I went and saw three Bob Dylan concerts this summer and had to travel to do it, and I’m really impressed with how he’s performing this year. I’ve got two more Dylan shows coming up next month, too. So it’s less a rejection of Lucinda than it is an acknowledgment of the fact that I have a limited amount of money to spend on concerts, and she’s not the only artist I see over and over again. Furthermore, I’d definitely attend tomorrow’s show except that it’s GA and I’d be hard-pressed to get down there after work in time to get a spot near the stage; that’s something that matters a lot to me when it’s GA.

So when I say that I’m not attending as many shows because of Lucinda’s new sound, it’s not meant to be a harsh criticism of that sound, just an acknowledgment that while I like her current show, it’s not enough to overcome the other personal reasons I’m not going to more shows. If I was more fully enthralled with her sound right now, I’d make it to more shows regardless of time and money, but the flip side is if I had more money I’d do more shows as is.

BTW, thanks for the insightful comments, Tom.

I finally went out and bought Little Honey on Friday…being busy with work, it took me that long. 😳 I got a chance to listen to it a few times Friday and Sunday while I was on the road (which brought back fond memories of hearing a couple other Lucinda albums for the first time while I was driving, but I digress).

My thoughts? I like it better than West, but it’s going to be tough for this album to climb any further up my list of Lucinda albums from best to worst (but note, I consider West to be a good album in its own right…one of ’em has to be my least favorite, no matter how I feel about her work as a whole). There are a couple of things that bother me about the album as a whole. With the exception of Well, Well, Well, I feel the backing vocals on this album take away far more than they add; I just don’t like them. I was also disappointed by the quality of Lucinda’s vocals on some of the songs. One of the things – actually, the thing that attracted me to her music at first – was her beautiful, evocative voice. She still has a beautiful, evocative voice – I know because she still sounds just as fantastic to me in concert as of a couple months ago – but it doesn’t get much of a chance to shine on Little Honey. Circles and X’s could be a great song, and as it is it’s a pretty good one. What a shame that Lucinda is almost mumbling throughout most of the song…and I say that as a Bob Dylan fan, so you know I’m very tolerant of a lack of enunciation. 🙂 It just surprised me; I think Lucinda’s vocals in concert are almost as strong as they’ve ever been and certainly haven’t fallen off due to age the way Dylan’s have, but I didn’t think they came across very well on the album.

As for the individual songs, I was quite familiar with most of them before listening to the album, so I can’t help comparing most of them to the renditions I’ve heard over the past few years. Well, Well, Well was better in its earlier arrangement circa 2005, I think. Tears of Joy and Knowing don’t feel as urgent as they did when she started performing them (and presumably, shortly after she wrote them); sonically, I feel like they belonged on West despite being more upbeat than most of that album. They don’t seem to fit on West. Honey Bee and Real Love come off very well on the album and retain almost all of the power they have live, which impressed me. It’s A Long Way To The Top was a disappointment – as vibrant and rocking as it is live, it’s way too subdued and low-key on the album. Rarity feels a little lengthy, though it has some beautiful lines in there.

My biggest disappointment? Jailhouse Tears. Elvis Costello is wrong, wrong, wrong for this song – and I have a lot of respect for him as a musician and would’ve welcomed a collaboration with Lucinda on some other song. From the first line he sang, I cringed when I first listened to the song. While I have my dream duet partners (Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Ryan Adams, Jack White, Tom Waits, etc., etc.), almost anyone would’ve been better suited to the song than Elvis. Heck, Charlie Louvin could’ve done a mean version, I bet. 🙂 I’m overstating my criticism, mind you, because I do like the song and I don’t think the duet is a disaster; I just think it could’ve been so much better.

Circles and X’s and If Wishes Were Horses are poised to become two of my favorite Lucinda songs, though I bet I’ll enjoy some live versions of Circles and X’s more than the album version, for reasons I’ve already mentioned. I agree that If Wishes Were Horses is the standout track – beautiful writing, beautiful vocals.

I hope I’m not making it sound like the album is a disaster or that I dislike it, because that’s not the case. I hold Lucinda to a pretty high standard because I consider her to be one of the greatest songwriters alive, and I just don’t think this album hits it out of the park.

LOL…yes, I definitely would’ve considered a sick day if my stupid flight hadn’t been Wednesday night. Oh well.

As for Madison, yes, it’s GA seated. As I understand it, the Orpheum is a theatre with fixed seating; I’m a little surprised it’s GA, but that might be kind of nice. She played a GA seated show at the Barrymore here a couple years ago and the thing I like about GA with seats is that not everyone rushes to the front. I saw Steve Earle at a GA seated show this year, also at the Barrymore, and was maybe 100th in the building, but got a 2nd row center seat; a bunch of people in the front of the line either headed for the front of the balcony or picked seats a few rows back…guess they don’t like being right up front. Worked great for me, though.

I’ll still show up early just to be safe, though. 😉

(And I just found out this morning that a trip I was supposed to go on next week has been canceled, so I’m considering a run down to Chicago for Friday’s show. Don’t know if I’ll actually do it, but it’s a possibility. I’m just not sure if the setlists are varying enough to make back-to-back shows worth it.)

Would you believe it, I’m going to Columbus on business (actually, just getting ready to leave for the airport now) and will be there on Wednesday…but I’m flying back Wednesday night, so no Lucinda show for me. I’ll see her in Madison, but it would’ve been nice to squeeze in another show. Oh well.