Now in its 55th year, an impressive achievement in itself, Cambridge Folk Festival continues to go from strength to strength and this year’s event was one of the best. At the top of the bill there were a lot of heavy hitters and they all delivered. Lucinda Williams wiped away memories of her dreadful appearance a few years ago with an outstanding set that, while it wasn’t the complete airing of ‘Car Wheels On A Gravel Road’ that she’s been touring was nevertheless full-on, committed, and contained a lot of fan-pleasers. Her backing trio Buick 6 was also outstanding, particularly Stuart Mathis on guitar. Continue reading “Cambridge Folk Festival, Cherry Hinton Hall, Cambridge, 1st-4th August 2019”
Given the way in in which people typically consume music nowadays, all too often the lyrics are sidelined, if not completely overlooked. But great lyrics are often what make the best songs truly memorable. The following is the first in an occasional series about songs with great lyrics. Mark Underwood explains what makes the following 10 tracks so special. 
In the nice “sail on a boat” sense. Rolling Stone reports, for all of you moneybags out there: “Nothing says “outlaw” like a Caribbean cruise, and for the fourth year running the Outlaw Country Cruise will set sail in January 2019. When it does, it will have a stacked lineup including Drive-By Truckers, Margo Price and Lucinda Williams all onboard. Run in conjunction by Steve Van Zandt’s Renegade Circus and Sixthman – organizers of the Americana- and country-heavy Cayamo Cruise – the Outlaw Country Cruise sails from Tampa, Florida, to Great Stirrup Cay and Nassau in the Bahamas. Also leading the bill are Bobby Bare, Steve Earle & the Dukes, the Flatlanders, Nikki Lane, Old 97’s, Shooter Jennings and Elizabeth Cook. 
She’ll probably never reach the heights or depth of Anthea Turner’s “Fools Rush In” (the “forthright, emotive and inspiring account of the life of a great survivor on planet fame” – that’s Anthea!) but Rolling Stone reports on a new autobiography Lucinda Williams has just announced: “Due out in 2020 via publishers Henry Holt and Company, [it] will chart the singer’s life and career from her Louisiana childhood to her Grammy-winning success of 1998’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road to “her experience navigating the unfriendly record industry,” the New York Times reports.