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Hey Tim
We seem to be the voices in the wilderness – yet you clearly have terrific pedigree and therefore credibility – 14 shows – you should be crew!!
My posts are not meant to be pointless rants or bitching, I genuinely hope for better things that is all. I bought the box set live in LA and cannot wait to hear it but there is a lot of fawning on this site that ignores some major issues. I was moved to join the forum last year when the love band went kaput. The suspicion that the kind of moody stuff mentioned on this thread was either the cause or the effect has made me join in and express my concerns.
I know it is Lucinda’s forum and I respect all those who join it who are obviously true fans. But to my knowledge it is not run out of Burma so there is no party line and some free speech is permissible and even desirable. Please – having a differing, qualified opinion is not treacherous or disloyal……..it is healthy.
Hmmm…Who am I gravel? The great existential question……….
I am just a poor wayfaring stranger – travelling through this world of woe. Same as your good self I suppose….only tainted by the rigours of life and possibly slightly jaundiced. I shall try to practise blind faith in future Honest Guvnor…….No Honest.
Actually I don’t listen to herself for perfection, I love the crack in the voice – the rough and the raw emotion. The lilting Southern accent- all those references to what sound like exotic locations -pure whisky to a tired ole Brit like me. But the point is a fair one isn’t it? Given with love – what you might call tough love – but still love….
Lost it
The big deal for me is that it just really pisses me off. It cost me hundreds to see her last time out in England and she was not good. Moreover her band was very iffy and I did not enjoy the stuttering show at all. Posters here said it was great – it wasn’t – it was poor and nobody said so. Why?
Lucinda is one of my favourite singers and songwriterss. Car wheels is my favourite album of all time and I have bought copies for friends and promoted her work with evangelical zeal
I don’t see her as a celebrity and do not endorse that spolied little princess behaviour. Also whilst I can see the line from the tragic divas of country music and Lucinda in her work I don’t want it to be self-fulfilling prophecy. So I think her manager or road manager or band should get a grip of her. I do not meant to be critical but constructive. I am a fan of many years standing – she is the best and should not let her standards slip.
Sis
No need to feel guilty about having expectations dashed by Lucinda’s primadonna behaviour. I am constantly mystified as to how people on this site can so often suspend all objective judgement when assessing Lu’s shows or commenting on her capricious behaviour.
I never saw Judy Garland but I think you make a fair point about the way Lu’s tantrums echo that era- and can actually make you worry about her wellbeing. Like many of the contributors here I have seen gigs and concerts in clubs, halls and stadia over the last 30 plus years and I have never seen and do not expect to see other artists rehearsing live onstage in front of the paying public. Save it for the sound-check or book some extra rehearsal time and then get it about right on the night. The odd thing is that every band makes mistakes onstage but only they know about it and most just plough on.
At $75 you haver a right to expect professional standards. You would not accept shoddy workmanship from anybody else- carpenters, plumbers, lawyers or Doctors- all of whom espouse trades and professions and then have responsibilities to their clients, customers and patients. Make no mistake a concert is a transaction like any other – its a paying job for the artist, there are contracts and penalty clauses as with every other deal.
The rather pompous way in which my fellow Lucinda fans excuse all this because she is an ‘artist’ does not wash with me and love her as I do, and I do – I and my 7 compardres will not be travelling 350 miles to London and back to see her whinge and moan and give a sub-standard show as she did last year. You would imagine after God knows how many dates this year that the band would be tight and she’d know the words – But don’t bet on it.
This is not the first time I have agreed with Tim but I suspect that Doug may not stay on much longer. He is an individual player with a fantastic style and totally complementary to Lucinda’s songs. Hopefully the pay is too good…..
As for Lost It’s allegation that I seek perfection; All I want from any artist is commitment. I saw Lucinda in London in 2003 and she was fabulous as was her band. Same venue 3 years later she was poor and so was her band. Not Doug mind you…and for me he can never be loud enough.
And it is the very roughness of Lucinda’s live work that I love so much – warts n all. Listen to the live album – raw bliss in a box to me. Lucinda should bear in mind that there are customers in the venue and behave accordingly – and dont give me the stock line about compromising her artistic integrity, she’s selling tickets like everybody else and she has to acknowledge the audience.
Lost it
That is where you and I see things differently. I saw Dylan a few years ago and he was so contemptuous of the audience that I vowed never again. He may be the great artist but when I bought that ticket he had responsibilities to me and my fellows – which he neglected.
I don’t want to watch a Vegas show or a Nashville show for that matter. Sunday Night at the London Palladium was always not my scene ….with its high production values – and you can definitely not bring on the dancing girls thank you……..
BUT I don’t expect the presentational standards of a high school beat combo either. Nor should I have to take them for that kind of money. Artistic licence is overrated and Lu owes the audience …….
Hey
Nice to see some measured, objective comment….lets face it we all love Lucinda. We wouldn’t be on this forum, buying the concert tickets and the records unless we were fairly devoted fans now would we?
However, we pay our hard earned to go see Lucinda and no doubt she gets well paid to play. I know there are contractual and personal obligations and that logistics makes touring a tough road – and it is hard to make a living with all those overheads – and the grind wears her down – and everybody wants a piece of her etc. But Hell that all goes with the territory.
I have heard it said that repetition is the killer for an artist but surely promotional tours are by their nature bound to involve set lists and formats. Hopefully the result is more sales – more fans and therefore more artistic freedom to make her art next time round.
I get a bit weary when artists allege that it is their perfectionism that turns them into prima donnas. They are in a special position and for me there is no excuse for sloppiness or bad grace at a show.
Jack
Living in the UK I don’t get the chance to see Lu over x nights so making comparisons between one show and another can be very hard. What is not so hard is to compare her approach to that of other artists. Frankly she is moodier than most and this comes out at her gigs.
I could not believe the praise that greeted her Shepherd’s Bush show last year – I must have been somewhere else because objectively it was stuttering, leaden and at times plain unprofessional. Sure Bruce turned up and rescued it but it was still a genuinely poor show.
I think when people get to see a favourite artist having clamoured for it for years, the capacity to be disappointed is huge yet the emotion can carry you through anyway and the sense of occasion saves the day.
This seems to apply to Lu because she is famed for her erratic shows yet she gets such unqualified praise on this site even when she is clearly a little….. flaky.
I love her work and have been a passionate advocate for it for years but I think artists have a responsibility to their audience and I wonder sometimes if she believes that. On the other hand maybe there is nobody around her operation who can say ‘get on with it- its a paying job ‘
Bob – Only five guitars in a show……….Last year in London he played the following guitars – James Trussart Steel Deville, Gibson Black Beauty Les Paul Custom, Gibson Double Cutaway Les Paul Junior, Gibson SG Custom, Gretsch DC Chet Atkins, Gretsch DC Duojet, Rickenbacker 360 12 string, Pedal Steel, Fender Stratocaster – I think he may also have played an acoustic but the details escape me.
What a collection! What a player……………
Hey – All this about who is the best guitarists is pretty teenage stuff isn’t it? For my money Pettibone is a great guitar player but if you disagree then fair enough.
I shall buy all of the live CDs if and when they become available as much for the guitar playing as the singing – the secret is – its a band playing live and all the musicians should complemenet each other. Lucinda is the centrepiece but Pettibone is a one off too, my favourite of her sidemen and from a technical point of view he is certainly no slouch. People carp about the amount of guitar changes but to cover all the ground he does makes him very special and he is no slouch on pedal steel either.
Thank God the days of prog rock guitar Olympics are long gone because they were ..well…. pretty boring weren’t they? Guiatrists will argue over such details but if you believe the song is the most important ingredient then the accompanist is vital and should be applauded for what he leaves out as much as for what he plays; Doug is a master of that and I love his playing.
May I be the first to lend the talented Mr(s) Ripley some suppport. Surely everyone is entitled to an opinion which should be expressed and received without prejudice. Disagree by all means but keep the abuse to yourself.
Lu’s songs are structurally pretty basic and essentially easy to play but the later stuff will not sound right unless you use the right effects – particularly a nice tremolo. Ears are better than tabs anyway as those who publish them are generally more adept on computer than guitar. Sadly ability on computer is no substitute for aural understanding and the one without the other just does not work so the result is a lot of dross.
Capo is compulsory on Lu’s stuff as like all folk guitarists she prefers keys with simple fingerings and open strings. For example ‘I lost it’ live is in B flat but it is played with A major fingerings with a capo on 1st fret. When you understand that the rest is pretty easy.
