Ray

A good resolution, and excellent suggestion for all of us, Gretschman. Most of us know that every Lucinda album (just like every Lucinda show) is going to be different, and so bringing expectations from the past is not really fair. (Nothing ever compares to hazy, glorious memory… 🙁 )

But I think that suggestion may be going against human nature! It’s difficult not to have — and express — an instant reaction!

I pine for more of the self-titled era songs (and Car Wheels era, too), but I try to look at each subsequent album as a new experience. I know Tim speaks of the legendary concerts of the past (and I envy him for being there), but I am still thrilled to see Lu, whatever form she is in, at live shows today.

Of the new songs I’ve heard (at the “listening party” site), I’ve got a favorite already and a few that aren’t bowling me over yet, but I’ll hold my instant opinion for a bit and give it time. “West” took a little time to grow on me, and now I do think it is a great album.

If Lucinda can keep it fresh, we as fans do owe her “a set of fresh ears.” 8)

Just to get this back on track because i don’t think the topic Rachel raised was gender issues or race (and it looks like Stellabluee only shared a Facebook post from a ‘Tim Wise’….) I think the topic is this: How do we all feel about Lu singing a bunch of protest songs? (About war, and our “leaders”)

Good topic, Rachel. I agree with you about the essence of patriotism, and I’m looking forward to this release almost as much as Little Honey. I’m impressed that Lucinda is doing this.

I’ve always been moved by protest songs. They can stir the same kind of passionate intensity that Lucinda’s best songs do about private feelings and reflection. And they elevate the music because there is a higher cause; its about more than just self.

Last year, at her NJ show on a college campus just before the NYC stand, she ended the performance with both “marching the hate machines” and “For What it’s worth”. it was a powerful, beautiful encore.

Although I don’t think she’s sticking her neck out very far with most of this audience, i still admire her for taking a stand. (….as she has done since high school, getting expelled for refusing to say the pledge of allegiance to protest another misguided war.)

I was also impressed when, at several shows last year, she read a poem by the beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti about how this country has gone astray and lost its best values. (It’s recorded on the live CD from the NYC World Without Tears night.) Here’s the poem:

Pity the Nation
(after Khalil Gibran’s “Garden of the Prophet”)

Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 2007

Gretschman, I remember your wise “emporer has no clothes” posts on this theme from last year. Lucinda “warts’n all” is such a frequently recurring topic, it’s worth its own thread, so i posted one over in the “In General” area….Tim, Rachel, tntracy, DiscoStu, tony — all good observations about the paradox 😕 of Lucinda!

😀 Thanks very much for that report from “fingers of lakes”, Lefty. Although I actually had tickets (and big plans — for a few days in that “gorge-ous” country), I wasn’t able to make it. (Had to listen to some live Lu downloads on the ipod last night as a consolation.) But now I feel like I was there in spirit. Sounds like a lovely show and like she felt very comfortable in the mellow, receptive crowd and beautiful setting. Glad you made it (wish I had). Thanks. 8)

add honeybee and the knowing into the mix

David, I know what you are saying here, and I am among those who “found” Lucinda in the self-titled/sweet old world era, and I thought it couldn’t get any better with the release of Car Wheels. I regard many of those songs as the greatest of all time. “Side of the Road” never ceases to move me, and what a thrill it was to see her do the self-titled album live in the New York City 5-night run last fall (with David Byrne as a special guest during the second set, no less).

But how terribly sad it would be if she were stuck in that era; if her shows were simply “lucinda’s greatest hits from the last millenium”, a nostalgia trip for all of us who feel part of the “cult like following.” Aside from the apparent fact that Lu just seems to simply groove with her band these days, I love that she is constantly reinventing her music. (It must be that New Orleans gene — taking all influences into the blender and making something new). It’s never stagnant. It’s still surprising and fresh. With each tour now she is pitching us curve balls and fast balls, and some of us shake our heads (in our ACL caps) wondering what just happened!

Last year, when she started playing “Honeybee,” she’d introduce it as her favorite song to play. Some posters here found that song beneath her. I understand — it isn’t Sweet Old World, or Side of the Road, or Am I Too Blue. But what fun, what a happy, unexpected surprise it was to hear her and the band play it! I see each new song as part of a long path of creativity, one leading to another, some better than others, but she’s trying something different or new, following her instincts. (The alternative is to just keep going around and around in a not very creative circle…) I look forward to what she brings us next year, or in five or ten more years!

I am happy that she finally seems to be enjoying the “fruits of her labors” — not in the sense of one who is taking the easy path (she never has), but in the sense that she seems to be finally free to create and play without limitations.

Can’t wait to hear the 2008 version! 😀

****

I’ll add my thanks to all for those great reports from the midwest. (Is Ottawa, Can. considered the midwest, too?) After the hiccups in that first show in Milwaukee, it sounds like Lu and “Buick 6” have already taken it to a higher level. (we can just call that first show a typical Lu false start…) Thanks, especially, to Disco Stu and Stoger for those great, thoughtful, detailed reports from Minnesota and iowa.

Nice. you guys do great work. (looks the the car radio image could also be used for Lu’s band Buick 6, i might add!) i’ve seen a few of your older tour posters show up on ebay and elsewhere — i’ve admired, and desired, but haven’t snagged one yet.

you know how we all go off on tangents around here — the discussion is in the LW Records section, in the LW Self Titled Album thread, of all places…

IJ writes:
The new record which is now tenatively titled Little Honey is scheduled to be released on 9/16. The self titled will probably be bumped until Jan/Feb.

and he notes that HoneyBee will be included.

Thanks for that background on Rarity, Stoger! Sounds like a favorite for those who have heard it. 8)