LUCINDA WILLIAMS : STORIES FROM A ROCK N ROLL HEART

LUCINDA WILLIAMS : STORIES FROM A ROCK N ROLL HEART

Let's Get The Band Back Together
New York Comeback (with Bruce Springsteen)
Last Call For The Truth
Jukebox
Stolen Moments
Rock N Roll Heart (with Bruce Springsteen & Patti Scialfa)
This Is Not My Town
Hum's Liquor
Where The Song Will Find Me
Never Gonna Fade Away

Label : Highway 20 Records

Release Date : June 30, 2023

Length : 49:03

Review (AllMusic) : On November 17, 2020, Lucinda Williams suffered a stroke that left many of her fans worrying about the future of one of America's best and most fearless songwriters. It didn't take long for Williams to regain her ability to sing, and the six albums in her Lu's Jukebox series (intended to benefit artists and venues who lost their income during the COVID-19 pandemic) proved she was still in fine form as a performer. However, they were all devoted to covers, leaving open the question of her relationship with her songwriting muse. 2023's Stories from a Rock 'n' Roll Heart is her first album of original material since her recovery, and comes two months after the publication of her memoirs, Don't Tell Anyone the Secrets I Told You. Williams co-produced Stories from a Rock 'n' Roll Heart in tandem with engineer Ray Kennedy and Williams' husband and frequent studio collaborator Tom Overby, and Overby also co-wrote these ten songs with Williams; most of the tracks also include contributions from Jesse Malin and/or Travis Stephens. Thematically, these songs don't always find Williams at her most inspired; "Let's Get the Band Back Together," "Rock 'n' Roll Heart," and "Never Gonna Fade Away" are exactly what you expect them to be from the titles, and coming from one of America's most perceptive lyricists, they're frankly disappointing. "Jukebox" is a well-executed character study but it's built from familiar materials, and "New York Comeback" is a tale where the parts don't fully come together (and Bruce Springsteen's overwrought backing vocals on the latter don't help). All that said, the songs that do work, work very well, and "Stolen Moments," "This Is Not My Town," and "Last Call for the Truth" are soulful and evocative tales of bruised emotions and lives out of balance, and "Hum's Liquor" is a heartbreaking narrative based on the last years of the Replacements' Bob Stinson. (Adding to its impact are the backing vocals from his half-brother, Tommy Stinson.) Even when the songwriting is below Williams' average, her vocals are still a wondrous mix of toughness and fragility, and the album sounds great, with a superb studio band (including guitarists Stuart Mathis and Doug Pettibone and drummer Steve Ferrone) generating the right blend of rock & roll swagger and bluesy loneliness, all captured with warm clarity by Ray Kennedy's engineering. Stories from a Rock 'n' Roll Heart isn't the triumphant return some might have hoped for, but for its flaws, it shows Williams hasn't lost her spark or her determination to create. This may not be a great album, but it suggests she has it in her to make another great one somewhere down the line.

Review (The Guardian) : In late 2020, a stroke impaired the motor skills of Louisiana-born Americana pioneer Lucinda Williams to the extent that it robbed her of her ability to play the guitar. Such is the regard in which she is held, an A-list cast (Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, Angel Olsen) has come forward to help out on Stories from a Rock N Roll Heart. With that intervention comes the risk of her 15th studio album feeling more like a tribute to Williams than a continuation of her garlanded solo career in its own right. The more collaborative approach works, however, from the rousing barroom rockers This Is Not My Town and Rock N Roll Heart to the divine Jukebox, a country ballad hymning the redemptive power of music (“I know how to ease my lonely heart/ With Patsy Cline and Muddy Waters”). The desperately sad Hum’s Liquor, meanwhile, is dedicated to the late Bob Stinson (and features his half-brother and Replacements bandmate, Tommy, on backing vocals) and is as bleak a depiction of alcoholism as the Replacements’ own Here Comes a Regular. It’s a relief to find Williams as thought-provoking and moving as ever.

Review (American Songwriter) : If there was any doubt that Lucinda Williams has a rock ’n’ roll heart, it’s put to rest by not just the name of her first collection of originals since her 2020 project, Good Souls Better Angels, but in the Americana singer/songwriting icon’s authentic, often raw, approach and uncompromising vision. The album is especially remarkable given the circumstances around its creation. First, Williams’ home was damaged by a tornado. She then suffered a stroke in late 2020, impairing her ability to walk and play guitar, the instrument she composes on. But Williams collaborated with husband/co-producer Tom Overby and called in longtime friend Jesse Malin and road manager Travis Stephens to help construct these 10 extraordinary tracks. It’ll only take 10 seconds into the rollicking Stones-influenced opening, “Let’s Get the Band Back Together,” to realize that far from being hobbled by her health, Williams, now 70, has emerged stronger, feistier, and more resilient. A crack band featuring Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferrone, veteran guitarist Doug Pettibone, and ex-Stevie Ray Vaughan keyboardist Reese Wynans provides muscle and a musical pulse shifting from the creeping swamp of “This Is Not My Town” to the bittersweet ballad “Where the Song Will Find Me” and the heartland strum of “Stolen Moments,” a tribute to Tom Petty. The songs crackle with sturdy, robust melodies, driven by Williams’ distinctively husky vocals. Her singing has always been suffused with restrained passion, but she taps into something even deeper here. It’s impossible not to be moved by the frayed narrative “Hum’s Liquor,” a tribute to The Replacements’ fallen co-founder Bob Stinson, or “Jukebox,” where she sings with an aching voice how the titular machine cures her loneliness. These stories resonate with strength and an irrepressible spirit few other artists can summon. Williams’ ability to persevere over issues that would sideline lesser talents and create music this impressive is a testament to the vitality of her rock ’n’ roll heart.

Review (Written In Music) : In november 2020 werd Lucinda Williams in haar huis in Nashville door een hersenbloeding getroffen en werd een tijdje gehospitaliseerd. Gitaarspelen is er niet meer bij maar sinds het concert in de zomer van 2021 met Jason Isbell heeft ze terug de weg naar het podium gevonden. Al vlug keerde ze ook terug naar de studio. Ondertussen is er ook een boek uitgebracht, ‘Don’t Tell Anybody The Secrets’ verhaalt haar jeugdjaren en haar intrede in de muziekwereld en nu is er een nieuw album. Stories From A Rock’n Roll Heart komt na de voortreffelijke zesdelige reeks Lu’s Jukebox met live in de studio ingespeelde odes aan Tom Petty, Dylan en een county- en soultribute aanzetten met nieuwwerk. Evenals bij de voorganger Good Souls Better Angels is er productionele ondersteuning van haar man Tom Overby, die componeerde enkele songs samen met Lucinda terwijl ook Travis Stephens, een snarenveteraan uit Nashville betrokken werd bij het project Voor de opnamesessies in de studio werd weerom samengewerkt met Ray Kennedy die destijds betrokken was bij Car Wheels on a Gravel Road en het recente Good Souls Better Angels. Naast vaste sideman op de concerten, gitarist Stuart Mathis werd ook pedalsteelman Doug Petitbone geëngageerd. Aangezien ze de songs niet meer kon voorspelen op haar gitaar was het voor Williams belangrijk dat ze op die vertrouwde muzikanten kon terugvallen. “Let’s get the band together”, zingt Williams in het door rockende snarenriffs en warme orgelgloed van Reese Wynans gestuurde opener met brommende bas en welgemikte meppen op de drumvellen, de achtergrondzang is van Margo Price en Buddy Miller. In My New York Comeback, eveneens met inbreng van Jess Malin, duikt een notoire gast op. Springsteen mag samen met vrouw Patti Scialfa eveneens opduiken in het opwindende Rock’n Roll Heart, perfecte casting bij het thema. Naast die meer energieke oprispingen zijn er dieper gravende, intense passages Last Call For The Truth en Juke Box zijn zo’n verhalen. “Going crazy with the sound of my own voice, going crazy if I don’t get out of this house”, een schrijnend relaas van een wanhopige eenzame ziel die in de bar om de hoek troost zoekt bij de liedjes van Muddy Waters en Patsy Cline op de Wurlitzer jukebox. Na het op verzengend slidewerk gebouwde Stolen Moments, dat naar de betreurde Tom Petty refereert en het eerder aangehaalde Rock’n Roll Heart confronteert La Williams de luisteraar nog eens nadrukkelijk met de sombere zijde van haar muzikantenbestaan in een fel bijtend This Is Not My Town, over vervreemding en onvermijdelijke onthechting. Hum’ Liquor vormt samen met het bluesy Where The Song Will Find Me en Never Gone Fade Away een opmerkelijk, troosteloos trio over verscheurende eenzaamheid gedebiteerd met die karakteristieke lusteloze zang, Lu is helemaal terug.