Calling Lucinda Williams country is a little misleading. I’m not saying country as a genre is bad, although it has seemed to get worse over the last ten years, there are plenty of great artists keeping it alive. Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Alison Krauss and a varied assortment of others that keep the genre from slipping down that Dixie Chick or Vince Gill hole forever, and Lucinda is certainly one of these. But the haunting tracks on West, her latest release on Lost Highway Records, are more reminiscent of Leonard Cohen than Trisha Yearwood.
Lost Highway has become like the new Island Records for American artists that are doing timeless work. From Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson to Elvis Costello and Van Morrison, Lost Highway signs the true artists as soon as they are acknowledged as that, and so Lucinda belongs on this label. Her songs are consistently raw, sincere and simply told. On West, she is especially contemplative and personal. From the sensitive first lines of the laid back “country” ditties ‘Are You Alright’ and ‘Mama You Sweet’ this album trickles in, then rocks hard before trickling away.
With edges that are rough on purpose, like Tom Waits, to the recording tones that make the string arrangements sound like they are in the back of a long hall, the tone on this album has a darkness and hollowness to it, as do the lyrics from time to time as they are sung by Lucinda’s rough gravelly voice, but the songs are overwhelmingly anthemic. ‘Come On’ is a dirty little rock song ala Neil Young, but most of the songs are stripped-down to simple strummed acoustic guitar and Lucinda’s sultry, smoked-out voice. When there is instrumentation, and almost every song spares no expense on interesting arrangements and accompaniments, Lucinda plays it soft, as an echoed background to the simple centerpiece of each song: her stark sincerity.
The album starts off gentle and cavernous, but by the time you get to ‘Unsuffer Me’ there is more Courtney Love to her aggressiveness and the songs take a rock edge. Lucinda does this edge far better than Courtney Love, however, because during this track you can imagine a mentally unstable Williams driving you quick down a winding mountain road that may or may not end in your demise. She has a psychotic-ness that exists inside of her sincerity. Perhaps it is the consequence of her sincerity.
The entire album is not dark. Many of the songs are sweet and up-toned, but when it comes to Lucinda Williams, there is always too much depth to be taken at face value, in spite of that blunt sincerity. So even those sweet songs, such as ‘Where Is My Love’ can not possibly be as innocent as they seem. So how can an artist that can be compared to Courtney Love and Tom Waits be considered country? I’m not certain, but if Lucinda Williams is country, she’s one of the good ones keeping country honest.
Lucinda plays at the Florida Theatre on Friday March 16th. Tickets are $27.50 – 37.50 at the box office. Visit floridatheatre.com for more information.
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