Sassy
straight talking rock on lady! This lady takes no prisoners and she seems
grounded.
I came new
to Lucinda, while I had read good reviews of her work. Looking at her Wikipedia
page I noticed that at 62 she has unusually been having more success as she
gets older.
As we
waited in the packed Glasgow concert hall an enthusiastic man appeared at the
side of the stage waving a set list. I got a photo - was this Mr Overby her
manger and now husband? I wondered was the extra time before the gig to ground
us to be ready to listen?
She sang several
tracks from her new 2016 album, Ghost of
Highway 20, in which she sings of her memories of the deep south and of
those lost to her. 'Places you can't let go of - they won't let go of you' and 'I
found myself on Highway 20'
On any
given night there would likely be certain songs on her set list such as Drunken
Angel, Lake Charles and Cold Day in Hell. 'Each time I look at the world
there's a different story.' Another song was entitle Protection. 'Protection from the enemy of love, the enemy of rock n roll' And on Find My Joy she sang, 'You took my joy don't mess with me.'
Her father
was the poet, Miller Williams (who
read at Bill Clinton's inauguration). He once took her to hear the preacher and
street singer guitarist Blind Pearly Brown. She may have found setting his
words to music a challenge but she managed on his poem Compassion and on Dust.
'You couldn't cry if you wanted to.' Her mother, Lucy Morgan was a musician.
The rocking
high quality band Buick 6 performed
with her. Guitarist Stuart Mathis took up mournful and joyous melodies along
side dynamic drummer Butch Norton in his white cowboy hat and their bassist
David Sutton racked up the energy. Often she turned her back to conduct the
band so they are all in sync. Lucinda with her shock of blond hair and leather
jacket is not your average softly dressed country gal! On a couple of songs there was just
Lucinda on guitar.
For her
encore songs Lucinda sang Robert Johnston's Stop Breaking Down Blues and JJ
Cale's song Magnolia. She smiled as she searched for the last song among her
pages of songs when her roadie came to assist.
She is a
three times Grammy award winner and considered one of America's top songwriters.
I can understand why, I was new to these songs and they registered and struck
home right away.
Harmony,
peaceful, rocking!
She is a
defiant lady who has travelled many roads. There were loads of stand outs and
textured, layered songs with an artist of this calibre and there is nothing
subtle about Lucinda. http://lucindawilliams.com/
Williams
was well supported by Canadian singer songwriter Jenny Ritter.
