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09/13 – KENNEDY CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C. – USA
09/15 -The Town Hall-Presented by National Geographic, NEW YORK
09/18 – ETown at boulder theater, Boulder, co
09/19 – national hispanic cultural center, albuquerque, n.m.
09/21 – HOLLYWOOD BOWL, LOS ANGELES, ca
09/22 – house of blues, san diego, ca
09/24 – wonder ballroom, PORTLAND, OR
09/25 – the moore theater, seattle, wa
09/27 – San jose state events center , san jose, ca
09/28 – San jose state events center , san jose, ca
09/30 – harris theater, chicago, illI highly recommend seeing Lila Downs Live. Her shows are always great! She’s intense, intelligent, and passionate about her music. Just like Lucinda. Also, don’t worry if you don’t speak Spanish, she translates very well. Plus, she’s been performing Lu’s “Yo Envidio el Viento” (I Envy The Wind). You can buy that song and her new CD on iTunes now.
The first rule of Eleven Rose Club is – you do not talk about Eleven Rose Club. The second rule of Eleven Rose Club is – you DO NOT talk about Eleven Rose Club. Of course, you could always just bring Lucinda a dozen roses (or even a baker’s dozen) and not worry about any rules!
Check out Greg Gaston’s intelligent and insightful piece in Crawdaddy on these two great American songwriters! His comparisons are quite valid and most interesting!
Shaggy Dogs: Paul Westerberg vs. Ryan Adams
by Greg Gastonhttp://crawdaddy.wolfgangsvault.com/article.aspx?id=2958
From an eyewitness account…
Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:08 pm Post subject: Los Angeles – Greek Theater – 7/31
I attended yesterday’s show at the Greek. It was unfathomable to me that the theater was about 75% empty while Lucinda performed, and that many who had made it their seats were milling about, chatting, and generally indifferent to Lucinda.
Lucinda told the audience that she had much the same base of fans as Mellencamp, but I don’t think so. Honey Bee was torrid – tight, intense, and mesmorizing. It made me sweat. Yet half way through, the couple seated next to me went for beer. Real Live Bleeding Fingers versus R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. Most in attendance missed or ignored the first, and swooned at the second. I went for beer half-way through R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A., an above average, nostalgic, pop song, for sure, but I needed a couple of beers to recover from Lucinda’s blistering set.
Lucinda should open for Springsteen. She’s one of the few artists who could complement his concerts. Bruce fans would adore her on first note. They are used to literate lyrics, appreciate blues and rockabilly and country-western; and are comfortable sweating at a concert. (Lucinda made me sweat yesterday.) Neil Young also would work for a dual-bill.
Mellencamp was a bad match. He has too many pop rock fans who come to see John Cougar. Lucinda is too raw, too powerful, and too unfiltered for them.”
Thankfully, after tonight this sorry little pairing will be over and done with.
Here are two posts from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Lucinda’s Opening Act for John Cougar at Summerfest 2008 on June 28th:
“Lucinda Williams opened for John Mellencamp Saturday Night and created enough drama to keep the crowd’s attention. Never mind the music! Reading song lyrics from a a music stand she performed an uneven set punctuated by bizarre behavior. At one point she walked off the stage to have a discussion with her guitar tech. Another episode included starting and stopping a song twice, and then scolding her drummer for playing the tune too slow. All this in a 40 minute set! I think someone forgot to tell Lucinda that she was opening for John Mellencamp in front of 20,000 people. During this somewhat dysfunctional set an audience member yelled out, “Your acting like Amy Winehouse!” Lucinda, if this music thing doesn’t work out you can always be assured a spot on the next VH1 reality series.” – Rock of The Arts
“Lucinda Williams needs to get over herself! I felt that we were part of her rehearsal session and did something wrong in getting there early to see the opening act. She opened up by saying “thanks for coming early to see your opening act” as if we really didn’t want to be there at all. As stated in an earlier post she was bizarre! After restarting the song twice she said something like “well we F***ed this one up” and never even played the song at all – like we would have even known the drummer might have been a tad slow?. This woman has to realize the reason you get opportunities to perform for larger acts on the road is to introduce yourself and your music to an audience that may otherwise never hear your music or style. I have seen many, many shows in my 44 years of life and this was the worst! Thank god for John Mellencamp he played great as always! ” – Flipper
I’m sure Lu and the band will get tighten things up further on down the road, but you can’t change the fact that when you open for John Cougar you’re playing in front of “MellonHeads” every night.
Heads up! Emmylou’s new CD comes out Tuesday, June 10th (she’ll also be on the Today Show that morning). And she performs on David Letterman’s Late Show Thursday, June 12th. I was at her Monterey show on May 23rd and can confirm that all her new songs and covers are terrific!
Thanks Tom for the update and insights. We’re all big fans, and you’re the biggest. I’m sure the tour will be a financial success. However, be prepared when you wander into the crowd during any of Lu’s opening sets. For the most part, you’re going to find a venue half-filled with indifferent “Mellon-Heads” paying little if any attention to Lucinda’s music. Many will be talking loudly, pounding suds, blowing weed, and just counting the minutes until their “hero” comes on. Maybe it will be worth it for the few who actually do listen and hear Lucinda’s songs. They’ll be the lucky ones.
Tom, you’re doing a great job managing Lucinda’s career. Good luck managing Lucinda!
P.S. We’ll be at the Mountain Winery show cheering the loudest.
P.P.S. As for her untitled new CD, please call it anything, except:
The KnowingI saw Lucinda open for Neil Young at a couple of venues in 2003 and most of the “Young Heads” were too busy getting their buzz-on to pay any attention to Ms. Williams’ “get it up, get it on, and get the hell off” 50-minute performance. She and the band were fine, but they were kinda like playing to an audience that was in a chemically induced mental and cultural vacuum. Then these same boozing-bozos started booing Neil for not playing his old songs! He was performing Greendale at the time. A body of work I happen to like for a variety of reasons. But my point is this, I thought Neil’s fans would have been a little more receptive and appreciative of Lucinda’s music, instead it seemed that many (or at least a vocal minority) just came to hear Neil’s old stuff. It was almost as if something new and literate was too much for their liquor soaked, lemming-size brains to comprehend. So, to quote Ricky Nelson, “If you gotta play at garden parties, I wish you a lotta luck But if memories were all I sang, I rather drive a truck… lot-dah-dah-dah (lot-dah-dah-dah) lot-in-dah-dah-dah.”
P.S. As an addendum, I would like to say that EMEK’s amazing guitar-snake poster for Neil and Lucinda’s concert at The Greek Theatre in LA is one for the ages. You can view it at: http://www.emek.net/posters/n/neilyoung.html
Hi – I have a VHS copy of this show. Do you have their cover of Wild Horses on Mp3? If so let’s trade.
… sitting there across the pond. Do you plan on flying over to catch any of these shows in the States? With the favorable exchange rate you’d be able to get in for almost half price. And if you don’t have a current passport, I’m sure your laminated John Cougar Mellencamp Scottish Fan Club Card (the one with little pink houses on it) will work just as well. Are you the chapter President? Hey…wait a minute; JCM is in the Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame! So I guess the pairing could’ve been worse, like Lu opening for Barry Manilow. (A Quadruple Yuk! vs. Double Yuk!)
