LWjetta

Great review from Lawrence.
Here is the link.
http://www.lawrence.com/news/2011/nov/13/review-lucinda-williams/
Review: Lucinda Williams
.By Sarah Smarsh

Sunday, November 13, 2011

.

The setlist from the Lucinda Williams show at Liberty Hall. The encore was cut short, possibly because Williams was ill.
It was her first show in Lawrence in more than 20 years, and Lucinda Williams was sick. But she put on her black leather jacket and soldiered onto stage last night at Liberty Hall, 644 Mass.

Early in the show, she briefly warned the audience about her cold.

“It sucks,” she said between coughs and swigs of water.

The show did not, however, as Williams played a mostly upbeat set list that offered a taste of her latest album, “Blessed,” but was largely a walk down the alt-country maven’s hall of classics. She delighted long-time fans by opening with “Can’t Let Go” and, two songs later, “Drunken Angel” from 1998’s Grammy-winning “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” the quintessential Williams album for many — and thus, perhaps, the one an artist might get sick of referencing. But later in the show she happily ripped into “Joy,” a bluesy self-empowerment anthem recently adopted by some factions of the Occupy protest movement. The crowd sang along with abandon, fists pumping into the air. Rolling Stone named “Car Wheels” among the 500 greatest albums of all time for a reason.

While Williams didn’t directly reference the political, she quickly cited the current Penn State controversy and other news items in introducing “People Talkin’,” a swinging diatribe against the world and the sorry bastards who populate it (“Livin’ is full of misery and pain/ Somebody called you a dirty name”).

“There is so much to be pissed off about right now,” Williams told the cheering audience. Also from 2003’s “World Without Tears,” she played the crowd-favorite title track, as well as “Real Live Bleeding Fingers” and “2 Kool 2 Be 4 Gotten” (inspired in part, she said, by the Birney Imes photography book “Juke Joint”).

Williams went way back yonder with three bits from 1988’s “Lucinda Williams” (“Crescent City,” “The Night’s Too Long” and “Changed the Locks”), songs that would have been new the last time she blew through Lawrence.

The four-piece band reimagined two songs from 2001’s “Essence”: “Steal Your Love” got real funky with the help of bass player David Sutton, and guitarist Blake Mills, who had gone solo as the opening act, put a psychedelic riff on that album’s title track.

For most of the evening, though, Mills worked a mean slide on his guitar strings — the sound of which feels at home on any Williams cut but has a larger presence on the “Blessed” album than on many of her studio recordings.

From that record, Williams had Liberty Hall swaying and lighter-flicking to the tender proclamation “You Were Born to Be Loved,” and she poignantly introduced “Copenhagen” as a meditation on hearing of longtime manager Frank Callari’s death while touring in Europe (“You are flecks of light/ You are missed”). Crowd members audibly oohed and aahed over that soft melody, which twinkled thanks to longtime drummer Butch Norton. The song inspired Williams’ first-ever music video, a haunting animation by Dave Ellis, co-creator of Cartoon Network’s “Squidbillies” (“’South Park’ on acid,” Williams said), for which Williams supplied a version of the intro song in 2010.

Williams unveiled the unrecorded “Stowaway in Your Heart,” an uptempo number with cheery vocal harmonies and lyrics about real-world love (“Thank you for giving me a place to hang around”) and covered “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven,” a song by major influence Bob Dylan, for whom she recorded a song on a recent Hank Williams tribute.

After closing with the hard-rocking “Honey Bee” from the 2008 album “Little Honey,” Williams returned for a three-song encore: the sweet title track from “Blessed,” the Allman Brothers’ “It’s Not My Cross to Bear” and Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

The set list suggests that Williams cut the encore short — perhaps due to that nasty cold — by not playing the listed “Get Right With God,” the “Essence” record that won her a Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. But she bid fans farewell with her first big smile of the night.

“I’ve always loved this town. Keep fighting,” she said

The set list: Appears not all selections were sung as 26 are listed and the”normal” total of late is about 22 selections..[attachment=0:1927s8co]luncinda_setlist Lawrence KS Nov 11 2011.jpg[/attachment:1927s8co]
ParkerCA, thanks for the report.-“Those Three Days” followed Real Live Bleeding Fingers.
lwj

A concert review from the message board of the forum–ChicagoConcertgoers.com
http://www.chicagoconcertgoers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=36&Itemid=44

I love the scrolling ticket stubs banner at the top of their discussion forum.

Wed Nov 09, 2011 7:44 pm

Lucinda Williams, touring behind her latest release, Blessed, brought a rare “cool” show out of the city and into the suburbs. She played quiet and then got loud for the packed house at Durty Nellie’s in Palatine. She ran the gamut of love and anger. The crowd left appreciative of everything they got.

After opening with a rollicking version of “Can’t Let Go,” Williams focused a good part of her set on her “relationship” songs. It made for something of laid back first hour, but did feature some highlights. “Buttercup” had Williams taking one last shot at a lost love. The live version was more fleshed out than the album and featured some the first of many colorful fills by lead guitar player and opening act, Blake Mills. A new song, “Stowaway in Your Heart,” sounded really good and was well received. Williams spent a few minutes plugging the cartoon video for the song “Copenhagen.” She seemed really proud of it. I checked it out this morning and it tells a strange, but touching relationship story.

The last part of the set turned the volume up considerably. Starting with “Seeing Black” Williams proved that this band could turn it up. “Essence” might have been the best song of the night and “Changed the Locks” go the biggest crowd response. Mills and drummer, Butch Norton, seemed thrilled to let loose whenever they got the chance.

Almost every song had her following along in a giant lyric book laid out in front of her on stage. While this is not that unusual, Williams made a point to remark on it early in the show. She apologized, calling it a “safety net.” She might have been searching for the words, but knew what she wanted to say. Her message was clear in the music and she made her political thoughts clear. Williams talked excitedly about the fact that her song “Joy” had been used in several of the protests in Wisconsin last year. She dedicated it this night to her support of the current Occupy protests.

The suburbs got a great show. Here’s hoping we get some more from time to time.

Setlist:

Can’t Let Go
Pineola
Drunken Angel
Buttercup
Stowaway in Your Heart
Well Well Well
Concrete and Barbed Wire
Fruits of My Labor
Copenhagen
Born To Be Loved
Tryin’ To Get To Heaven
Steal Your Love
Those Three Days
Seeing Black
Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings
Essence
Changed the Locks
Joy
Honey Bee

Blessed
It’s Not My Cross To Bear
For What It’s Worth

lwj

@tntracy wrote:

@Lafayette wrote:

Is this a new shirt added to the swag? Has tnt seen this?

I just did, & I want one! You know how much I love “Blue”, don’t you, Lafayette! 😆

Tom

T shirt TYPO.
T SHIRT SEZ “Go find a Jukebox and see what a Quarter can do.”
RECORD SEZ “Go find a Jukebox and see what a Quarter will do.”

Maybe this will be valuable someday with the missprint. 😆

lwj

@punchdrunklove wrote:

@LWjetta wrote:

@punchdrunklove wrote:

ooh, the blessed t-shirts. is that the only one? blessed x6?

FOLKS. why is it not on sale on the site??!!

punchdrunklove, here’s my full picture from Buffalo of the t-shirts available.
I agree the store on this web site needs a refresh.[attachment=0:28n5hgol]Lu’s T’s Buffalo.JPG[/attachment:28n5hgol]

lwj

that 1st t-shirt on the 2nd row (above the red devil one), what is that?

It’s the opening line from “Blue” Go find a Jukebox and see what a Quarter will do.
pdl, right click on the image and save it in your pics and you can enlarge it for viewing.

lwj

@punchdrunklove wrote:

ooh, the blessed t-shirts. is that the only one? blessed x6?

FOLKS. why is it not on sale on the site??!!

punchdrunklove, here’s my full picture from Buffalo of the t-shirts available.
I agree the store on this web site needs a refresh.[attachment=0:lyjp73lf]Lu’s T’s Buffalo.JPG[/attachment:lyjp73lf]

lwj

As Lefty reported it was a killer show.
Y’all note how Lefty added a smily next to “Sidewalks of the City” ( a song Lu only recently dug out of her extensive archive). My new cell wasn’t programmed for roaming in the US so I almost missed meeting the former moderator of the FF. I was in the long line on the Main St. Buffalo sidewalk waiting for the doors to open when I heard my name from a gentleman about 4 or 5 up in the lineup talking on his cell. Turns out it was Lefty, otherwise I would not have met him.(So we were blessed)

The Town Ballroom was close to a perfect venue with 3 tiered levels of standing room, superb acoustics, huge bar,and friendly staff.
Lefty and I introduced ourselves to Eileen the new merch. gal, and yes, stoger she remembers you. It’s unbelievable that she and the other 10 in the band/crew travelled all night from Lebanon, NH in the bus to shuffle off to Buffalo.

Buick 6 came on about 7:50 with a 1/2 hour crowd pleaser and Blake outdid himself on “Surfing USA”

As per most of the other shows recently, Lu opened with the great Randy Weeks song and set the pace for a great mix of songs.
The crowd really got a kick out of Lu’s introduction to Copenhagen with the Squidbillies animated video connection.
Butch lost a couple of sticks during the blistering Joy ( a song Lu relates to the Occupy movement.)
All in all a great setlist mix and here’s a HQ video of the Buffalo Springfield closing song to get a feel of the atmosphere.(Much better than my pics)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M37tEgHHKCE

Again it was great to meet Lefty.
lwj

@Lefty wrote:

Glad you caught a great one, Tim. Fingers crossed for tonight!

I’m sure it’ll be another great set tonight in Buffalo.
See ya there.

lwj