WebMASTA

One more comment I’d like to make about Stuarts playing last night… (sorry the memories of the evening keep flooding in)…
Two skills that Stuart has, that I am really impressed with, are 1) his slide playing and 2) his harmonica playing.

I really love how Stuart incorporates Lucinda’s vocal melodies into his solos and chord arrangements.
Seeing Stuart slip on slide and then play a solo with and without the slide, mixing up regular fingered playing with slide playing fluidly, all in a standard tuning is just magic.

What was more impressive to me, was seeing Stuart’s harmonica playing on Drunken Angel. It was like listening to the record. As soon as it was over, my wife turned to me and said “…that was perfect!”

I’m always amazing when someone puts on a harmonica holder and plays while playing guitar.
Must be the influence of the two Dylan’s on him… 😉

I am so glad Stuart took the guitar gig with Lucinda’s band. He clearly has put great effort into fitting into Lucinda’s music. Knowing how well he, Butch and David play, makes one wonder what it would be like to see them as trio going nuts. They really are impressive musicians.

This was my favorite Lucinda Williams show to date.
Yes I said it. And I’ve seen a few….

Her voice sounded amazing.
I remember thinking how great she sounded at the beginning, but by Drunken Angel I turned to Tom Overby and said “…this sounds amazing” and he said “yes it really does” in that confirming acknowledgment, that only comes from someone who sees her every night… I just knew the rest of the night was going to be stellar and it was nothing short.

Pineola – God I love this song. From the rasp of Lu’s voice, to the kick snare snap of butches entrance to the song, to the tasty little guitar licks, it always delivers hard, like a bullet to the chest and at such a slow tempo. Perfect opener.

Drunken Angel – Considering I had one too many the night before and Lu ended up being my evenings Angel this song had tons of meaning for me last night. I’m still getting used to Blake and this guy really is amazing. For sure, one of my new favorite players. I love how even WITHOUT the sound of this songs classic electric 12 string in the arrangement, Blake and Lu brought this song new life without it. It was really well performed, fluid and the melody was spot on.

The tempo and mood of the “first program”, seemed to me, to be a slower, more acoustically focused set of arrangements, this lasted for like 11 numbers but the evening just soaked them up. They were so beautifully performed with the band so spot on. Each member listening so closely to each other executing each note with such precision. Sometimes you see just how great players are when they play slow and this band plays like they’ve known each other forever.

The first surprise in the evening, came in a new Lucinda song that she said hadn’t been recorded yet.
Stowaway in Your Heart – I loved it. Instantly indentified wtih the lyrics and loved the song construction. This is one is gonna be one to look out for. Can’t wait.

Ventura – Just awesome. Such a beautiful melody and Lucinda delivered it. I of course have my favorite lines…”..put Neil Young On”…”Lean over the toilet bowl and throw up my confession”, I’ve always loved how poetic, and unapologetic Lucinda has always been with her writing. I instantly identify with her and she takes me to a higher existential place. And last night she swallowed me up in an ocean of love”

With World Without Tears and Blue, I found myself signing along as usual but
“Born To Be Loved” and “Blessed” had me thinking how important this last album is.
Lucinda has really stepped out and honored humanity in these lyrics. If these songs don’t heal wounds and or help those who’ve lost their way, then no song ever will. I could almost imagine my mother singing these songs to me and I finally stopped feeling like the only songs being written today are by a class of ignorant narcissists. Thank you Lu.

Still I Long For Your Kiss – Acted like a lighter hearted transition to the rockers. It was like Lu was DJ’ing her set and getting me ready for the rockers.

Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings – Had its classic “fuck yeah, fist pumping head rockin’ vibe”, But Essence had a new slower darkness to its overall tone thanks to Blake. Its like Blake heard all the coolness of the previous guitar parts and just added a stack of edgier grit and tone to it.

“Changed The Locks” As always kept the party rockin, another of my wifes favorites who just loves to jump up when she hears it. Of course at this point we needed a blues breather and the Allman brothers classic “It’s Not My Cross To Bear” did just that. Blake Mills once again having a great number to stretch out his chops.
The night was so powerful that songs like “Joy” and “Honey Bee” who usually just steal the show seemed not as large as usual. But still great they added that wow I am really getting my monies worth tonight because there isn’t a killer song here. Just awesome way to end the rockers and get us ready for the encore.

The encore was really in all honesty way more than an encore. It was another mini set.
Encore to me usually means 3 or so more songs because you’ve been such an appreciative audience. Truth is Lucinda had gratitude and support for the working class and wanted to show her support for those standing up to the occupy wallstreet movement across the country. And Lucinda is no late comer to supporting working class values. The set she brought was as I hear a shortened set from what she delivered in San Francisco a few nights earlier.
Encores:

I Ain’t Got No Home In This World Anymore (Lu Solo) (Woody Guthrie)
Amazing how people sang along and how great just she and guitar filled the room.

Factory (Springsteen) She dedicated this to her husband Tom’s father who worked in a factory for over 30 plus years. I’m not that familiar with the original and will need to listen to it this week while her performance is fresh but the band and her made it their own and sounded full to me.

Marching The Hate Machines Into The Sun (Thievery Corp.) This is one of those covers of Lu’s that impresses me with her courage to take on anything and recognize the inner beauty of not only the core melody but the power of a song.

Bone of Contention. Perfect placement of something Lucinda has written that went well with the theme of this Encore SET.

Salt of The Earth (Jagger/Richards) At this point I just felt so happy to be seeing this I was wondering just how was Lucinda going to bring the night to the end and of course she did it with the soulful R&B groove “Inner City Blues” by Marvin Gaye. Of course her point was how relevant the song was to the current economic issues at hand today and it was a perfect close to a working class issues inspired set.
Dave nailed the groove on bass and Blake amazed me with his R&B strat funkiness but I just remember saying to myself…right on sister… Thank You!

Another surprise part of my evening that I forgot to mention was when I went to the bar between shows and Patrick Murdoch came over to say hello. He is a real sweet heart and wanted to say hi to me. We hung out on several occasions when JP, Chrissie and Patrick were finishing their record in LA between April and June. I told him how great I thought his playing was Tuesday night and asked if he had finally found the distortion pedal he’s been looking for. He hadn’t yet and the hunt was still on for something really edgy and stood out. He is a another great tone master and in this trio config he is playing as tasteful as he can, clearly in any ensemble Patrick can add so much, but honestly, this guy in full band format is a monster. Check out his playing in Big Linda on myspace and you’ll see what I mean. Anyone lucky enough to catch a full band version of JP, Chrissie and the Fairground Boys (Big Linda) will see what I mean.
Big Linda is basically rest of this group as the Fairground Boys. Also check out their new video/single and buy their album when its out next week.

The Napa show ticket giveaway and meet and greet will launch tomorrow in the AM.
3 pairs of tickets will be given away.

Look on Facebook for details!

Consider this heads up exclusive to forum members!

WEBMasta

I will definitely be at the Queen Mary Long Beach Show and I’m still working up my excuse for going to the San Diego show. I’ll let you know if I get a 2 night “kitchen pass”.

Wow, what a night to kick off a mini tour! I wasn’t sure if I’ld be able to go to the show, with it being in Ventura and having a two year old and all, its sometimes hard to get out especially on a work night… but my wife Jennifer who is also a die hard Lu fan did something completely out of character and got a sitter on a work night and surprised me the day before by making it a date night. So living in the San Fernando Valley we actually made it to Venture in 40 minutes and had a incredible evening.

Taking the night, with a sort of a “take it as it goes” attitude, we got to the theater, got our tickets and walked over to Watermark restaurant http://www.watermarkonmain.com/, sat down at the bar and had 2 glasses of a Russian River Pinot and a great meal.

I really got to spend some quality time with my wife and then walked over to the show and catch the tail end of JP, Chrissie & The Fairground Boys. As soon as they were done, we waited to see if any seats would open up and who do I run into, but non other than Michael Rosenblatt, the man most famous for discovering and signing Madonna, along with many other artists such as the New Radicals etc.,

Michael & I used to work together at MCA Records, where I was an IT person and also where I began building websites for a living. Of course I am happy to see Michael, because he is a famous record executive who I rarely ever see or get to see let alone talk to and he starts telling me the story of how he so badly wanted to sign Lucinda Williams to MCA Records. Michael goes on to tell me how he had brought “Car Wheels…” to the then President of MCA who passed on it. The details of the story had me riveted, but the message here clearly was that after all this time he was still a hugh fan and so glad to know I was too. So ever before the show started, my night was off with a bang of many surprises.

As soon as Lucinda started, we then all ran to our seats to catch every note.

For my wife… hearing so many of songs for the first time live, was really cool. I being a guitar critic, was just in awe of how well Val is fitting in so perfectly and adding a tasteful flavor all his own. After seeing him play with Shelby Lynn and in the studio recently track on Lucinda’s latest album, I’ve come to understand why so many people love him. Even that night before the show I met a guy who worked at McCabes guitar shop come out and get all excited because Val was playing… but I have to admit, while I listened to Val play these the arrangements of these classic Lucinda songs, my mind did wonder and think of Doug Pettibone and how now I will always measure Lucinda guitarists up to his great tone, style and phrasing … and then who walks in and sits just a few rows in front of Jen & I? Doug himself. Not being in on the surprise guest info thing, Jen and I are like “…wow, how awesome is this? You think he’ll sit in? And sure enough Doug does. So after Side of the road, I of course being a new fan of Val’s and long time fan of Doug’s had to run up as close as I could when I realized on Joy it was gonna get crazy good and sure enough I captured this on my little digital canon camera…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BGjtPcvNe4
This was just pure magic for me, two great guitar players throwing solos back an forth in celebration of each other! And even Lu followed this with the “I’m not worthy” bows to each of them.

Also in attendance was long time Lucinda friend and fan, Pamela Des Barres. My wife having read her rock n’ roll memoir “…I’m With the Band”, and me loving the idea that she is widely considered to be the model for the Penny Lane character in Cameron Crowe’s film Almost Famous, it was a real treat for both of us to know that she is also a real fan. Sitting behind Pamela, we looked over her shoulder as she rocked back and forth the whole night and was clearly signing along. Here’s a pic of Lucinda and Pamela sharing a laugh and smile after the show.

JP Jones and Chrissie Hynde not only didn’t do a song with Lucinda, but they had to split before the end of Lucinda’s set. But knowing this would bumm lucinda out, they hand drew a large thank you card in blue sharpie to Lucinda and the band. It reads… “Lucinda and Rockin’ Band, The Queen of Rock! (Not Country) Thanks We love you! Chrissie, Thank You Lucinda, JP, Patrick Murdock xxx

The back story of the Rock and Country comments on the above card, is that when Lucinda hung out back stage at JP, Chrissie & Patrick’s first gig together at Club Bardot, Lucinda told Chrissie about how she has always wanted to be considered a “rocker” like Chrissie and hasn’t always accepted being labeled “this or that” (I’m paraphrasing here) simply because she lived in Nashville at one point. Chrissie was so articulate and astute with Lucinda about how Lucinda was indeed “a rocker”, while also being very important to Nashville. Personally, I was blown away to see (in my opinion) two iconic women, being so supportive of each other. Lucinda clearly being a big fan of Chrissie’s (often wearing a Pretenders T-shirt live), now inviting her to launch a new project, by playing on gigs that Tom had already set up.
And now seeing this card by Chrissie calling Lucinda a “Queen of Rock!” left backstage for Lucinda to see after her show. Obviously it was a hugh thank you for letting them play these shows and certainly, in my opinion, a really heart felt gesture that I’m sure touched Lucinda. Definitely a drawing of Lucinda worthy of the “Fan Created Art” section of the Gallery! 😉

Here is a video of JP, Chrissie and Patrick’s first gig that I was fortunate enough to have been invited to see with Lu and Tom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwWx08pnIgM where they decided to do these shows together.

But I have to say, the thing that really continues to remind how special Lucinda is and what I always look forward to is meeting the people who are so touched by Lucinda’s music and make such a hugh effort to go the shows. While Jen and I were having diner, she asks me… “…do you think we’ll see so and so and so and so? Jen & I look forward to seeing people who we have now come to know as the “die hard fans” at the live shows. Tuesday night, I had to make a deal with one fan, who I knew would end up with the set list. Our deal was, if he got it first, I begged him to let me photo it for the website, and then I’d give it back to him. If I got it first, I would take the pic and then give it to him. What’s amazing to me is how he always does gets the list off the stage before anyone else including the band techs or members. I, on the other hand have to wait to get them from Tom after they get back, and that is just too long for me, but Tuesday I had a plan, and I really wanted to post it. You see, knowing that Lucinda had taken fan requests when putting the set list together, I knew the immediacy of seeing the list online would be awesome for people. Thanks Tom Tracy for re-posting it below after I posted it today on Facebook.

Also thanks to TonyG for your kind words and to everyone who are so immediate with your postings and give such great insights, I can’t thank you enough for making this site so awesome with your contributions! I know I don’t post much here, but man do I love reading these threads!

Ralph aka “WebMasta”

The reason the twitter widget on this site looks funny is because it is posting the tweets exactly as they were posted on Twitter. ….Out of order.

For some reason the middle post (the first one in the series that Lu tweeted) came in after the second post which is on the bottom. The top post is her last tweet. Twitter by the way is buggy but people still use it because its become a great way to get lots of ideas across a cluttered information space.

Lu’s first tweets are going to be as most peoples are, not used to the 140 character limit of twitter. So what if she had to use three tweets to say what she wanted. Hence the (Cont.)

The decision to post a twitter widget on the site was for the fans who just want to see the posts and not have to go to twitter or use a twitter tool to follow her.

If your a real fan you’ll join twitter, interact with her and be blown away when she responds.
And then RT (repost her Tweets) to others so she can communicate directly to a larger audience.