Lucinda Williams – Live @ The Vogue

Concert Reviews • Thursday July 9th, 2009 • 4:51 pm

Lesson learned: Old people get to shows early! Okay, let’s call them the mature set. Either way, the largely-grayed onlookers who took to Lucinda Williams standing-room theater show on a soft Indiana night were treated to a tight, righteous time.

Buick 6 is the band that backs up Lucinda these days. It’s a jam act, classic stuff, and the players set the night’s tone early with taut guitar riffs and drum work. The perfect opener: excellent musicians, different enough so as not to upstage the Lady.

And so Lucinda appeared, kicking off a 23-song set (wow) with A/C pumping breezily into the house and her expectant fans yet panting. “I Just Wanted to See You So Bad” revealed this eve’s enduring theme from the get-go – here we have a woman taken by love.

It’s great to see, though we’ve known it for months, since the release of Lucinda’s latest album, Little Honey: The lady’s in love. One Tom Overby’s the culprit, liked it, put a ring on it. As the singer’s classic line goes – “You took my joy/ I want it back” – well, former Best Buy exec Overby presented it to her again in 2008. (He manages her career now to boot.)

Dear Lucinda couldn’t seem to stop grinning for the duration of the show’s two and a half hours. And why should she? We’ve had enough of the tumult, the tides and tears, from this grande dame of folk-country, alt-country, whatever we’re calling it today.

The show seemed to consist of quite a few mini-sets, of songs from wide-ranging albums that just fit together so congruently. “Concrete and Barbed Wire,” “Circles and X’s,” and “Learning How to Live” (“The days ahead will never be the same/ For you I might have even changed my name”) all came painted in dreary grays and blues, Lucinda’s former colors of choice. Little Honey, Williams’s ninth studio album, and Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, produced 10 years earlier and arguably her best record to date, provided the bulk of the show’s fodder.

From 2007’s West came the sublime, bittersweet “Are You Alright?” Sure, it’s about a departed lover, but one can’t help but consider Lucinda’s departed mother when hearing a line like, “You flew away just like a little bird.” Either way, such great sadness – and the fact remains that no one strums pain like Lucinda.

Another thematic 1-2 punch arrived in the soiled glory of “Drunken Angel” (“Another song about what I affectionately call a beautiful loser”) and “Little Rock Star,” which was supplemented with lush Buick 6 backing harmonies, truly transformed live. Both tunes serve as cautionary tales, and, delivered by this woman who abstains from hard liquor anymore (opting for red wine), one simply stands at attention for the listen. Allegedly written about Amy Winehouse and Ryan Adams, “Little Rock Star” should be required hearing for every budding songbird.

Lucinda’s anxiety when performing live (she has a crowd phobia) was sometimes obvious on this night. It’s a bit distracting and detaching, sure, that she does read from lyric sheets propped up on a music stand as she sings. Many reviews and forums have piled on the hate over this, and her penchant for re-starting songs (which did not happen on this night). Maybe it’s good to know stage fright still affects someone over 50 – the consummate pro is all too human. Lucinda operates as either methodical or mechanical on stage. You decide. You dig the songs – one of the meatiest original catalogues still playing today – and you deal with it. Look at her go – she’s slurry, she’s swaying – in the end she’s a delight.

The Essence album’s “Out of Touch” received the extended-jam treatment. And all hail guitarist Eric Schermerhorn – featured on the song, this man (equal parts Art Garfunkel and John McEnroe, by the look of him) flat-out slayed his solo toward song’s end. He’s a capable replacement for Doug Pettibone, formerly Lucinda’s right-hand axeman. Indeed, this was a truly magical musical evening. The girl knows what she’s doing in bringing on these top-notch mercenaries to back her up.

Honey Bee standout “Real Love” came and went pleasingly before the rowdy, beer-drenched crowd truly took to the bawdy mini-set that was “Come On” and “Honey Bee.” The former, a raucous kiss-off, had Lucinda spitting brutal game: “You think you’re in hot demand, but you don’t know where to put your hand/ Let me tell you where you stand/ You didn’t even make me come on!” Conversely, “Honey Bee,” surely on sullied Gov. Mark Sanford’s iPod, tells the TMI-addled tale of frenetic lovers: “Oh, my little honey bee, I’m so glad you stung me/ Now I got your honey all over my tummy!” Tawdry exclamations like this reveal what fun the girl’s having these days.

Lucinda’s glorious alighting on Indianapolis culminated with a four-song encore, topped off with, well, “It’s a Long Way to the Top,” a fitting AC/DC cover, raucous, brassy, and tailored to her weathered warble and her life’s toil and trouble. That’s the thing about Lucinda Williams: She hasn’t sung a song yet that she doesn’t believe.