On this, predictably, wet and sleety night The Barbican became the centre of the Americana world, as the official Number One Greatest Americana Artist was set to take the stage with her band. There was a fairly sparse setup, with a three piece band having the rhythm section of David Sutton and Brady Blade to stage right, whilst guitarist Marc Ford was far off on stage left, and Williams herself out front with a seat providing both somewhere to keep her water and offering an occasional leaning spot. We’d discover later on that Doug Pettibone, who’d normally be adding guitar and pedal steel, had flown home due to a family emergency. As it transpired, the stripped down band suited a set list which edged towards the blues more often than not as it featured the latest album quite strongly, although, undeniably, the sweetening of the pedal steel here and there was missed.
After a loud welcome, and a slow walk to her microphone, it was World Without Tears that got things underway – a rock song, soft in tone, that leans towards a gospel feel and questions whether the world might be a better place without sorrow or pain – that gives the feeling, through Lucinda Williams’ now deeply gravely vocal, that we’re talking about the personal as well as the global.
Before launching into its title track we were reassured from the stage that, despite having a new album out the evening would contain some older songs – and that was certainly proven to be true. The World’s Gone Wrong is a chunky tale of struggling to survive – what would have been for Springsteen a classic blue collar tale, only here we’re hearing from a nurse and a car salesman, a note that the struggle is working its way up. The strain of both just getting by and of trying to find your way in a world where the news is untrustworthy or bleak is perfectly conveyed by Williams’ vocals – straining at words wishing for some return to decency: “She hopes this won’t last forever / she needs to believe it’s going to get better.” Aware that the recent album does have a bleak heart Williams explained that “I think there’s still hope in these songs, it’s hidden a little.”
Pineola ushered in another theme for the evening – songs that were written for friends who died much too young. Blaze Foley was another, immortalised on Drunken Angel, with Williams describing how he was shot and killed in an argument, followed by Lake Charles presented as a portrait of a flawed person, a critique that only those who reallyk new and cared for him could make. The downbeat mood continued into new song Low Life which shuffled through a slow blues, painting a picture of the kind of bar which would be perfect to just drink out the rest of your days in. It’s a seductive thought, like falling into a Dr John song, and indeed this New Orleans inspired song does reference the good Doctor.
It took a diversion into cover versions to really lift the mood, and up the tempo with an excursion into a punky-reggae party mood for Bob Marley’s So Much trouble In The World, with the lines “you need to listen to the people on the street” taking a new relevance with the recent scenes on American streets. There’s a dabbling in The Beatles’ pool with a fine While My Guitar Gently Weeps with a great, and different, take on the main guitar solo. There was also Change The Locks, with its multiple recitations of “things I’ve done to get over you” acting as layers of aversion therapy, which expanded its audience when Tom Petty covered this Williams original.
Whilst older songs such as Joy did appear, the scathing protest of The World’s Gone Wrong album set the strongest frame for the evening, bringing in older songs that matched the mood. There’s no denying what Williams is singing about on the eternal wait for civil equality of Black Tears, the scathing put down of the pursuit of greed of How Much Did You Get For Your Soul or the dedicated to Trump You Can’t Rule Me. Lucinda Williams would like the world to know that she’s mightily pissed off with what’s going on in her country.
Thankfully, unlike a few years ago, Lucinda Williams didn’t undertake the unnecessary exertion of leaving and retaking the stage for the “encore” section of the gig. Which left a little more in the tank for the spirited declaration that “you don’t need to be so smart / you don’t need to be a work of art” which at least holds out some hope for those of us who aspire to a Rock And Roll Heart. The night closed out with another cover, the seemingly now traditional Rockin’ In The Free World, with Neil Young’s words gleefully sung by the audience – even with a few verses cut it’s a triumphant and cathartic closure for a gig the like of which we’ll be lucky to see again. Williams was visibly tired as she left the stage, but buoyed up but the rapturous – and deserved – applause. My god, she truly does have a rock and roll heart.
Opening the evening was Ben de la Cour, solo on stage with just an acoustic guitar and a bunch of songs that flirt around the bleaker edges of Americana – dark tales of dark deeds. There’s a twisted personality on the tale of violence and bank robbery God’s Only Son, there’s gruesome death observed from a fall from a hospital’s 14th floor but there’s also softer finger-picked balladry on New Roses and the still finger-picked but rather bleaker Numbers Game which paints a picture of despairing poverty with no way out in sight. Those last two are from Ben de la Cour’s latest album. The short set finished with a return to big chords and literal devilry, as a man searches out the devil at a crossroads, whilst the devil is out looking for souls. The final song was a “one minute song” called Christina, whose protagonist contemplates her cigarettes and her asshole boyfriend – both of which she reflects, are going to kill her “but they ain’t killed me yet.” A bleak, and yet engaging set.
