Going Out West

The Fall of 1993 I had a friend who went to the College Music Journal in New York City to play. He invited me to come along to help set up and check out the other acts. We both agreed that we would see as many acts as we could or looked promising. We saw Frank Black solo show. We saw a little band called Urge Overkill and a band called Kyuss. We saw so much stuff I bet I saw someone who is now or was famous, but god knows I cannot tell you about it. I think we saw about 30 shows over that weekend. My friends band was in the middle of those shows and he drew a huge crowd. It was fun because he was just a little ole punk band from Connecticut. One person I wanted to see was on this sampler we got on the first day of entry. Her name was Lucinda Williams. She was playing at the Bottom Line. A club that I always idolized and looked up to when I wanted to see some great singer-songwriter. I heard stories from my uncle who saw Van Morrison there in 1978. He told me that if an artist just wants to be intimate or just looking for a good time he or she goes there. My friend agreed to go, because he wanted a change of pace from all the punk shows he saw at CMJ. It was our last show of the festival. We were drained and needed something to wind down.

A few of my friends who lived in the city actually got tickets to this show too. I knew I was in for a treat when my friends told me that Paul Simon was here and Elvis Costello was here and few other famous celebrity's where mingling around waiting for the show to start. I only heard one song, but I was eager to hear what else she was going to sing about. I sat at my seat and my friend was anxious as well. The lights dimmed and for the next 2 hours Lucinda Williams poured her heart out for all of us to hear. It was truly amazing show. One of my most memorable moments of my early concert going career.

More then a few years past after that great moment of my life and I wonder if Lucinda was going to put out a new album. These few years turned into six long years. I just did not get it. She put out four album from 1979 to 1992 and now I had to wait again for her to put something more out. Waiting was a pain, but when her new album came out in 1998 I was ready. She had added a little twang to what she was doing, but those confessional lyrics were great. Intentionally or not, the album's common thread seems to be its strongly grounded sense of place -- specifically, the Deep South, conveyed through images and numerous references to specific towns. Many songs are set, in some way, in the middle or aftermath of not-quite-resolved love affairs, as Williams meditates on the complexities of human passion. Even her simplest songs have more going on under the surface than their poetic structures might indicate. (AM)

At that point I saw her again and this time she actually was putting out albums more frequently. I saw her a few more times and she was never disappointing. This time she had more celebrities checking her out. If anything she felt conformable about herself and her words. She would make her father proud for taking to see Flannery O'Connor every week. (Something I did not know till some time last year, that her father was friends with the famous author.)

I bought the next three albums of her and was fully in love with her words and her roots. Then in 2007 an album that blew my mind came out. Lucinda just took me away from a place I never heard her do. The album West was amazing and produced by one of my favorite people Hal Willner. A complete 360 for an artist grounded in roots music and blues to do an album that was full of great interest. Her and Willner worked well together and when he brought in his own people to play for her. This collaboration — as unlikely as it might seem on the surface — results in something utterly different and yet unmistakably Lucinda Williams. West is a warm, inviting, yet very dark record about grief, the loss of love, anger at a lover who cannot deliver, and embracing the possibility of change. In other words, it's not without its redemptive moments. Williams has put all of her qualities on display at once with an unbridled and unbowed sense of adventure here on her eighth album. She, her bandmates, and Willner have come up with exactly what pop music needs: a real work of art based in contemporary forms and feelings. (AM)

As for me I think it's her best album in her career. It just is full of plush sounds and her lyrics go so well with what the band is doing. I wish this album was better accessible to everybody because it is well done. If you are trying to impress someone who thinks all you listen to is unappealing music, put this album and just listen. Below the picture are some of her best lyrics. Enjoy!

With an ocean in my spirit
And cracks on my lips
And scars in my heart
And this burden on my hips

Ocean becomes heavy and tries
To push its way out
Through these ancient eyes
And the memories in my mouth

Ocean becomes tears
That ebb and flow
Over the lines in my face
And the pain in my soul

And pain hits a wall
And doesn't know which way to go
And ocean says I'm crying now
And tells pain to follow

And pain courses through
Every vein, every limb
Trying to find a way out
Between the secrets in my skin

And secrets hold on
Until they finally give in
And they meet up with ocean
And tears again

And tears hand me a shovel
Saying break beneath the crust
That binds earthly skin
And buries all the trust

Somehow trust was caught
Between the cracks on my lips
And the scars in my heart
And this burden on my hips