Lucinda Williams 29/6/2013

Last time I saw Lucinda Williams a few years ago the circumstances were unfavourable but despite that the gig was good enough for me to want to catch her again and a gig at a South Wales small town theatre looked a good bet. The venue turned out to be very nice and the crowd were in tune with the ethos of her blue-collar roots. The support was the now-usual singer songwriter. He was called Jimmy Livingstone and he was quite personable and I liked his last track which had a lot of energy but other than that he was OK but not particularly to my taste. Lucinda came on with Doug Pettibone on guitar and was joined after a track by bassist David Sutton. Straight away I remembered the powerrful directness of her vocals; you wonder how the voicebox copes as she gives it welly on every song. She kicked off with 'Passionate Kisses' and followed up with one of my favourites 'Metal Firecracker'. In fact the whole set is composed of good or very good songs because she is an outstanding songwriter and while I can pick out a few of my particular favourites there wasn't a weak song at any point. If I was being particularly critical I might have preferred 'Car Wheels..' to be delivered in a slower more downbeat style but that is nitpicking. Doug Pettibone came more and more to the front as the set went on and his guitar playing was outstanding. In fact right after 'Car Weels..' he played two exquisite solos on 'Pineola', perfectly attuned to this poignant song. One of the highlights for me, as was 'Lake Charles' shortly after, another song about death, but hey, this is country music. 'Jail House Tears' upped the tempo somewhat and was another outstanding track and not long after there was perhaps the best song of the night, a Skip James cover, 'Hard Times Killin' Floor Blues' with some superb guitar from Doug Pettibone. For a gig that featured just a couple of covers, 'Factory' in the encore was another great moment. I guess if you are a great songwriter then any cover you do is going to be a special song. I'm delighted I got to see Lucinda Williams again and in much better circumstances than last time. Roll on the next tour I say.