Real Live Bleeding Fingers And Broken Guitar Strings
Are You Down
Those Three Days
American Dream
World Without Tears
Bus To Baton Rouge
Words Fell
Grammy Award winner Lucinda Williams is releasing her first live album titled Live @ The Fillmore. It was recorded at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco CA in early 2004. The double album includes such fa... more »vorites as "Joy", "I Lost It", "Essence" and "Blue", but Williams digs even deeper into her past with gritty versions of "Pineola" and "Changed The Locks". Other songs featured are from the highly-acclaimed, Grammy-Nominated 2003 release World Without Tears. Live @ The Fillmore features one of the best bands on the road today, with guitarist, pedal steel and background vocalist Doug Pettibone, anchored by Taras Prodaniuk on bass and Jim Christie on drums and percussion. Their performances of Williams' songs are an extraordinary balance of aggression and finesse that perfectly complement Williams' unique vocal style and songwriting.« less
Grammy Award winner Lucinda Williams is releasing her first live album titled Live @ The Fillmore. It was recorded at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco CA in early 2004. The double album includes such favorites as "Joy", "I Lost It", "Essence" and "Blue", but Williams digs even deeper into her past with gritty versions of "Pineola" and "Changed The Locks". Other songs featured are from the highly-acclaimed, Grammy-Nominated 2003 release World Without Tears. Live @ The Fillmore features one of the best bands on the road today, with guitarist, pedal steel and background vocalist Doug Pettibone, anchored by Taras Prodaniuk on bass and Jim Christie on drums and percussion. Their performances of Williams' songs are an extraordinary balance of aggression and finesse that perfectly complement Williams' unique vocal style and songwriting.
Further into the mind and soul of Lucinda Williams
John Stodder | livin' just enough | 08/22/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
""Car Wheels on A Gravel Road" was a Grammy-winner that introduced millions of new fans (including me) to the brilliant performer Lucinda Williams whose poetic lyrics, memorable tunes and country-rock sound seemed both fresh and timeless, especially to fans of Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Her subsequent albums, however, did not seem to reach her new fan base. The spare but evocative lyrics turned stark and minimal, and the emotions they revealed seemed extremely personal. The music was somewhat the same, but darker, more claustrophic, an accompaniment to the obsessive mood. I liked these albums ("Essence" and "World Without Tears") but if you didn't find them a little disturbing, you really weren't listening.
With "Live @ the Fillmore," Lucinda seems to be breaking all ties to the "Car Wheels" gal, and saying to her fans that this intense, internal, obsessive space is where she's at and where she's staying. This album is not a recap of her career, a greatest hits collection. It is almost completely devoted to the last two albums, and the few earlier songs that she includes either predicted her current direction, or are reinterpreted here in a darker vein than the originals.
Does she sell these songs? I would say yes, completely. They benefit from the greater expressiveness of live performances. Her vocal delivery is even harsher, the incredible steel guitar/electric guitar work of Doug Pettibone is even more expressive, at times sheer metal noise, at other times lonesome sobbing. These songs seem very close to the bone; I almost felt I was a Peeping Tom hearing her bemoan a hit and run lover in "Those Three Days," instruct a too-selfish lover in "Righteously," or paint a dark picture of solitude in "Ventura." This is a full-grown woman in three dimensions, a woman who has not found love to be much more than a momentary release followed by aching disaster. It can be scary. But it is artistically brilliant and satisfying."
Adequate
Jethro | Midwest | 05/10/2005
(3 out of 5 stars)
"A good listen, but in many cases the studio versions of these songs were more satisfying to me. I thought a strange thing was going on with this recording. On one hand, the vocals sometimes didn't show enough restraint and went to some place beyond the rawness that we like from Lucinda. On the other hand, the band showed too much restraint much of the time - they duplicated the studio sound well but didn't really tap into the kind of extra energy that a live show can convey. This dynamic works alright on the more low-key songs that start disc one and finish disc two, but it falls down on the faster/harder songs in the middle of the set.
Lucinda fans will buy it and like it well enough (I did and do), but..."
Incendiary Devices
Lee Armstrong | Winterville, NC United States | 05/12/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The little blurb by label mate Elvis Costello on the packaging calls Lucinda the closest link we have to Hank Williams recording today. Yes, her honesty as a performer is intense and if each note is not perfect, on a soul level it certainly makes sense. "Ventura" that opens is a slow song where Lucinda's vocals sail peacefully over the lovely melody, "I want to get swallowed up in an ocean of love." "Reason to Cry" is another slow gorgeous melody where Williams' voice seems worn with world-weary worry, "I thought things would stay the same, I thought things were right on, then our sunny days, how could we go wrong?" Lucinda starts to let loose on the emotional belter "Sweet Side" with the talk-sing verses and the wild chorus. The band lets loose on "Changed the Locks" with Lucinda's wild electric lead searing the speakers and her ravaged vocals pouring more power into a lyric than anyone since Janis Joplin, "I changed the kind of car I drive so you can't see me when I go by & you can't chase me in the street & you can't knock me off my feet." Disc 2 must have been re-sequenced since the computer lists the opener as "Essence" rather than her classic "I Lost It." "Pineola," the tale of a suicide, is not the most pleasant of songs, but is ripped to shreds by Lucinda's bloodlust performance that gores the jugular & never lets loose of her grief. Her snarl and vocal fierceness on this track adds new levels to the studio version. Lucinda's electric lead is like an incendiary device in the emotional gasoline of "Righteously," "Be my lover, don't play no games, just play me John Coltrane." "Joy" is another startling assault with the band in crack form and Lucinda's primal vocals violating the musicality to arrive at an apex of desperation. "Are You Down" takes the pedal off the metal as Lucinda's bluesy electric guitar jolts the melody, milking it like a classic Grateful Dead treatment. "These Three Days" is another strong melody where Lucinda explores feelings of being used by a lover. "Bus to Baton Rouge" from the "Essence" album sounds good in this live rendition. Lucinda Williams shows some incredible sides of her talent that come through in a more replete manner than in her studio recordings. We hear her as a guitarist, sometimes as adventurous as Hendrix; and we also hear an incredible vocal performance, rivaling Janis Joplin for sheer no-holes-barred emotion. Bravo!"
Not sure what to say
T. Witanek | Houston, TX United States | 04/26/2006
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This is a good live recording, but owning better live bootlegs of hers, and having attended better concerts of hers makes me wonder who decided what got put in this release and why? It took me a long time to shell out the bucks for this, and had I read the reviews on Amazon first, I probably would have spent the money on something else. Lucinda still makes me weak in the knees and I'll still buy the studio stuff and certainly keep going to the shows. The Fillmore might be legendary, but her performances in Houston far exceed what transpired on these San Francisco nights."
Lucinda Redux
Sally | Montana | 05/04/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Lucinda's rough, boozy voice is the perfect instrument for her poetry of unrequited and obsessive love, loss, sorrow and guilt. Her backup matches the mood of every song - inventive, original and pulsing with electricity and virtuosity.
Like John Prine and Dylan her lyrics tell stories with laser insight. Like Janis Joplin, she turns herself inside out, hurling emotion without restraint. Like Delbert McClinton she integrates her powerful lyrics with musical accompaniment that socks it home. But Lucinda with guitarists Doug Pettibone and Tara Prodanick, Jim Christie on drums, are soul mates, soaring above them all in this rare, raw event.
Lucinda repeats some of the best songs from other albums. But this time, they're not done with the same tenderness. Her voice has become more desperate and ragged. Every cut has an edge. Like a wounded woman, stripped to her soul, alone in a dark room with hard booze in a dirty glass, drinking away the pain. Hurt and melancholy, she shares with us the bitter leftovers of rejection and abandonment.
The first disc of this two disc album starts with "Ventura," The morning after, with nothing but emptiness and regret, she longs for redemption. "I want to be swallowed up in an ocean of love." Hawaiian sound - slide guitar. Sweet, sad, spent.
By "Out of Touch" things heat up. The beat gets more insistent and driving. Hints of rebellion. Guitars on the loose. Then back to melancholy.
"Sweet Side" reveals a deeply compassionate understanding of character.
"Changed the Locks" Fury! Revenge! Opens with a threatening drum beat and guitars grinding, squealing, whining while Lucinda lays it down, her teeth gritted, in a heavy vengeful beat.
"Atonement", the last cut on disc one, honors ZZ Top. It starts with a strip club beat as Lucinda calls all sinners to the bible. Drum punches in the march to redemption. The guitars break loose, screaming, twirling, crying, pushing on. The beat is unrelenting. "Come on!" Lucinda bawls out.
On Disc Two things get going. Supersized sixties sound, Hendrix style - a stew of rock, blues, and country guitar - rich with vibe, slide and ride, wail and whine. Powerful counterpoint to Lucinda's raunchy vocals.
Then "Joy." Primal. Fierce. Raw. "I don't want you anymore. You took my joy." Against Lucinda's furious rant, the music is a bouncy, mellow rock. Mid way it starts to build a fever, then retreats back to the subtle rocking beat, fades down and murmurs a few notes. Lucinda cries out. Guitar rises up, gains speed, shakes it hard, retreats again to a slow drawl, lying in wait for Lucinda's final exhausted lament, then gently carries her off in a soft retreat.
"Real Live Bleeding." Old style. Like a Stones number. Bitter lyrics.
Those Three Days." A killer. Skin crawling heartbreak and loneliness embraced in elegant language.
"American Dream." Her rap number "Everything is wrong!". Military beat with a raoomp drum, sticks, and a smooth guitar glide.
The finale, "Words Fell." Slow. Country blues. Guitar wails like a soft wind. Beautiful lyrics. Words fall, like roses at her feet.
In this well balanced duo of lyrical and raucous, Lucinda is the musical mistress of anguish, anger, regret and love."