Jonathan P. Baird

On Friday night, I went to see Lucinda Williams play the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord. I had not intended to write about it but the show grabbed me. Lucinda is the real deal and there is almost nothing better than live music. Lucinda is probably not for everyone but I am a hardcore fan. Judging by the crowd, she does have a substantial adult following.

I suppose Lucinda is an acquired taste. She can be pretty dark and hardbitten although a positive side is woven through. I think I once heard Imus say you might want to kill yourself after listening to too much Lucinda.  I think she is hard to categorize. She is a rocker, a country singer, a folk singer, and a blues singer. Her songs are like poetry. Her lyrics are unusually evocative.

For anyone who has not heard her, I would begin with the album Car Wheels on  a Gravel Road. That is vintage Lucinda and it won a Grammy in 1999 for best contemporary folk album. She did sing a number of songs from that album at the Concord show. She led off with Drunken Angel. Then she sang the title track. Later in the show she sang “I Lost It”. She explained that song by saying that she had lived in Houston in the late 70’s. When there, she saw many car bumperstickers that said “I Found It”. Her response was “I Lost It”. Near the end she sang “Joy” which she dedicated to Occupy Wall Street. The song has a great groove.

The words from Joy, in part, go:

I don’t want you anymore
’cause you took my joy
I don’t want you anymore
You took my joy
You took my joy
I want it back…

My wife Deb joked that the words could have been:

I don’t want you anymore
’cause you took my job
I don’t want you anymore
You took my job
You took my job
I want it back..

Either way, it did seem like an appropriate song for now. Lucinda did sing two songs from West, her 2007 album. Not unexpectedly, she sang “Unsuffer Me” and “Come On”. She rocked out on both and got pretty loud. “Unsuffer Me” is about as bleak as it gets although it includes Lucinda’s desire for bliss. “Come on” is an ultimate revenge put down song. No one can accuse Lucinda of writing sappy love songs.

To add variety, she did a Dylan and then a Greg Allman cover. She definitely showed range as a blueswoman singing Allman’s  “It’s Not My Cross to Bear”. She also did “Get Right with God” and Blessed, the title track from her newest CD. After her encore as she was leaving the stage, she said, “Peace, love and power to the people”. I seriously have not heard anyone say “power to the people” in 40 years. Occupy Wall Street is giving people hope, I guess. It is hard not to love Lucinda. Buy her CDs, check her out on youtube or better yet, go see her live. You won’t be sorry.