Lucinda Williams
This is really not a musician birthday blog, but the ever-changing celebrants offer a good reason to rotate who I feature. Yesterday was Lucinda Williams‘ birthday and I meant to post this but then I got lazy, what with all the uploading, the picture-finding. Whew. So today, here is a festive salute to the “agony aunt” of today’s alt-country/americana blues sound.
I am not super-familiar yet with her work, I think I downloaded this track off someone’s celebrity playlist on iTunes. Can’t recall. But she is really great, and this track showcases her unique voice and rough gravelly sound. It is a pitch-perfect, rollicking wrencher about having a bit of trouble recognizing the end of a relationship, off her perfectly-descriptively titled 1998 album Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. As one reviewer says of the album, “the entire Deep South is reduced to a sleepy small town filled with ex-lovers, dive bars, and endless gravel roads.”
There is some *delicious* slide guitar (I think you have to say gee-tar with this one) throughout in the vein of Ben Harper, and a leg-slappin’, toe-tappin’ beat. Stand up and listen to this and if you can be still throughout, then I think your rhythm-appreciator-thingie is broken.
“Can’t Let Go” – Lucinda Williams
Name: Heather Browne
Please–for the love of God–do NOT use the word “gee-tar” under any circumstances, especially if you are trying to give props to a Southern artist. It’s the equivalent of “sho ’nuff” vis-a-vis African America.
Anonymous — January 27, 2006 @ 2:28 pm
my people are from georgia. can’t i say gee-tar? i thought i could. i thought i had the southern street cred.
heather — January 27, 2006 @ 2:58 pm
Never take anonymous comments seriously; just consider them the pigeon droppings of blogging.
annulla — January 29, 2006 @ 7:22 am
PLEASE do not equate/intimate/obfuscate Lucinda Williams with a youngster (being as kind as possible here) like Ben Harper. – Ann Animus
Anonymous — February 2, 2006 @ 10:30 am
Ohhhhh Lu! She can rock it out for sure. Just saw her last week for a more subdued acoustic set but she still rocked. I don’t think Lucinda would ever pronounce it “gee-tar” but the future isn’t written yet. You may enjoy some artist reviews on my new blog http://chewingtheclef.blogspot.com/ Feel free to link up if you feel so inclined.
Stacey — March 14, 2006 @ 6:34 pm