 [Larger view] | Lucinda Williams - Live @ The Fillmore
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 Shame about the track selection | |
| Lucinda Williams is by far the best artist at the moment, I have all her records bar the very first, and I have her new dvd of Austin TX, but this live double cd at the Fillmore looks fairly lame. Another reviewer says she doesn't sound too good. I have a couple of bootleg live cds of her performing during her Essence tour, the first night of the new tour she sounds incredible, (even if she had to re-start Lake Charles due to a cold) the other cd is from her last night and she sounds fairly raw. So I am mindful of spending money on this new cd, especially when there aren't many good tracks on it, there isn't even Lake Charles which is a desperate ommission.
My main complaint with Lucinda is this business of trying to be perfect all the time, she needs to loosen up a bit. It shows in her dvd in Austin, she almost looks bored to tears as she goes through the numbers until just after Lake Charles when her band members start going wild with the guitars and then she smiles and gets going with having some fun. Maybe she was nervous. I look forward to her next studio album, and hopefully it won't be long to see a release of her performing a live dvd with a much wider collection of her songs including Crescent City, Lousiana Man. And please, when they bring out another dvd lets have some sparkle from herself, and some out takes, an interview, not just 14 tracks with virtually no chat. 74 minutes of just her performing is a bit weak, earlier in the month I got the Led Zeppelin double dvd cost 10 dollars more than Lucinda's, but it has 5 hours of live footage and interviews, promos etc. Loosen up a little Lucinda, please. John | |
 Live and incredible | |
| Never getting the opportunity to see her live, to me it was refreshing to hear the rawness of Lucinda's vocals live, backed by an incredible band, especially the guitar work of Doug Pettibone.
To me the only disapointment, and it wasn't much of a disapointment, was she didn't draw more from her earlier stuff, especially her self titled cd, and Car Wheels which are two of my favorite cds of all time. But I guess it was no surprise seeing as how she was probably promoting "World Without Tears" when this material was recorded. The music starts out with some of her slower, mellower material, lulling the listener into a nice melancholic haze similar to that which one might expect from downing a couple of tablespoons of cough syrup. But just when you're about to nod off with the beautiful Blue, things quickly heat up with "Changed the Locks" and "Atonement" and by the end of the first disk with Lucinda and the band firing on all cylinders. By the time they get to disk 2 things only get better, starting with "I Lost it", an unforgetable version of "Pineola" continuing right through to "Real Live Bleeding Fingers", with the highlight of the whole disk sandwiched in between with an unbelievable version of "Joy" where Lucinda laying it all out with an incredible vocal, leaves no doubt in the listener's mind that she is going to find her Joy, be it in Slidedale, West Memphis, or right there at the Filmore, no matter the cost - the song is topped off with the incredible guitar work of Doug Pettibone. Things again slow down after "Real Live Bleeding Fingers", but in a nice sort of way, ending with three of her best songs, "World Without Tears", "Bus to Baton Rouge" and finishing up with a beautiful version of "Words Fell". All in all a very good cd and well worth the $14 I shelled out for it. | |
| Longtine Fan in Austin | |
| As a longtime fan I have to sadly say I won't be buying this one. Lucinda is a true genius. A god to singer songwriters. A big but here, the powers that be should have never released this one until her voice was in top form. Like nails on a chalk board some of the songs are unlistenable. I love you Lu but any of your studio releases are 4 stars beter than this. Check out the new Live in Austin DVD for some real singin'. |
