Lafayette

Found this preview on the Bonnaroo show on, where else…twitter.

http://outtheother.typepad.com/bonnaroo2009/2009/06/lucinda-williams.html

Editor’s note: This is a guest preview from contributor Lance Conzett, a Nashville-based photographer and music writer who also edits the Belmont Vision. Lance can be reached via his website, lanceconzett.com, or via email at conzettl@pop.belmont.edu.

Growing up in Nashville means that you fall in one of two camps—either you really dig country music, or you’re so burnt out on it by the time you’re 16, the very thought of Garth Brooks makes you hang your head in profound sadness. If you were a teenager in the 90s, you knew exactly where you stood in the good ol’ boy country vs. rebellious rock & roll culture war when KDF switched formats from alternative rock to country in 1999. I’m guessing that most of you out there were pissed—I know I was. Rattling around in my sullen teenage brain was a vague feeling of betrayal and I held a grudge against country artists for years, instead opting to embrace Nashville’s local non-country music scene and wind up at shows at The Muse where bands set things on fire.

But, we’ve all got to grow up eventually. My first flirtations with the twangy side weren’t groundbreaking, I suspect just about everyone winds up buying a Johnny Cash record eventually but it isn’t necessarily all downhill from there. There are a few artists out there that finally made me say, “You know what? This isn’t all that bad after all.” Lucinda Williams was my gateway drug to country music.

There’s something very refreshing about the sincerity laced in Williams’ songs. She has conquered a style of music and lyricism that uniquely subverts what’s expected from a contemporary country artist. She sounds unpolished, but only because the country-pop artists surrounding her are so over-polished that they’re blinding. In actuality, her songs are tightly produced and driven by a deceptive sense of perfectionism. The results are country songs that aren’t afraid to be different. 1998’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is as good a starting point for Williams as you could ever get, it’s a breakthrough opus that took 6 years of quiet tinkering before it finally was released to near universal acclaim. Although “Can’t Let Go” has been used all over the place to sell cars, “Joy” is more representative of Williams’ sound. She may be down-and-out, but she’ll kick your ass if she wants to.

For the longest time, it seemed like Williams’ best songs would only come from that downbeat attitude. World Without Tears was a musically adventurous album—for better or for worse—but it was defined by feelings of destitution. The vinyl release caps the whole sadsack affair with a rendition of the Tom Waits tune “Hang Down Your Head,” which sounds like it was sung from the bottom of a well. It’s a fine album, with some exceptions like the downright annoying “American Dreams,” but it’s a thoroughly sad record.

Five years after World Without Tears, Williams released an album that defied the stereotype. Little Honey is a happier album, made with support from her fiancé and recorded with a kind of vigor that was absent from that five year-old sadfest. It’s also much more of a country/rock album, especially on the opening track “Real Love” which trades in the bitterness of “you took my joy and I want it back” for “I found the love I’ve been looking for.” A somewhat silly guest appearance by Elvis Costello on “Jailhouse Tears” harkens back to the old days, but even a song about a couple separated by prison walls isn’t enough to bring the record down.

The song that stands out the most out of all of them, though, is “Little Rock Star,” a song that takes a shot at rock stardom and how sacrificing your values aren’t worth it. It all comes back to the biting sincerity and brutal truth that makes her songs so appealing, no matter what your feelings about the country music establishment are.

“Little Rock Star”
“Joy”

Lucinda Williams will play This Tent on Friday from 6:45-8:15 p.m. Check out the full Bonnaroo schedule on the official Bonnaroo website.

I hope you hear your duet. Love hearing you’re looking forward to Bonnaroo after going to two recent shows!

I’ll be listening for an Aussie accent as I wait in line! I’ll be rocking a “Peace, Love, Revolution” shirt to the show.

Your welcome, Lisa! So happy you found a nugget in the interview.

A tweet lead me to this flickr link. A 1:30 second video clip with highlights from the show.