![\"220px-Lucinda_Williams_&_guitar\"](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/220px-Lucinda_Williams__guitar.jpg\")
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I’M rushing out of town — remember that Powell’s Books reading Sunday! — but want to rave for a moment about the show I caught Wednesday night. It’s been a good few weeks for music — Martha Argerich with LA Phil at Disney Hall, solo-acoustic Lloyd Cole at Largo, Joe Henry with Sam Phillips at Largo, and now this one.<\/p>\n
I’ve seen Lucinda five or six times previously, but rarely in a club as small (or acoustically great) as the Troubadour. (I can’t use the word “intimate” for this show — she was raw, direct and raunchy.)\u00a0And rarely have I heard her in such good voice — kicking off with “Right in Time,” working though newish material from “When the Spirit Hits the Bone” (including “Foolishness” and the song “Compassion,” based on a poem by her late father), and including a cover of Neil Young’s “Rockin in the Free World.”<\/p>\n
Her backup band was Buick 6, who opened; I missed them, but they were focussed and forceful, and Nashville-based guitarist Stuart Mathis is one of my new heroes.<\/p>\n
The show wasn’t perfect — one of her very best songs, “Essence,” sounded like it could have used an extra voice, like a slide or country fiddle — but was exhilarating almost all the way through. Lucinda has so many great songs at this point — like Elvis Costello, Wilco, or Sonny Rollins, there’s such a great batch of work that she can surprise you and bring out gem after gem.<\/a><\/p>\n