A regular and much-loved visitor to our shores, Lucinda Williams returns to The Olympia, Dublin, tonight, the same venue where she played support act to Mary Chapin Carpenter almost three decades ago. Williams may not be as agile these times, having recovered from a stroke four years ago, but she's in splendid vocal form tonight.
Her one-hour and forty-five-minute set is a trawl through her back catalogue, including material from her earlier albums and her most recent recording from 2023, STORIES FROM A ROCK AND ROLL HEART. She's backed by a killer four-piece band, which includes her long-time guitarist Doug Pettibone and former Black Crowes axe man Marc Ford.
It's the first night of Williams' European tour, and from the opener, Let's Get The Band Back Together, to the third and final song from her encore, Joy, her set plays out as a retrospective journey from her early childhood to the present day.
She is at pains to emphasise the inspirations that fuelled her early love of music, whether that be her introduction and love of 'dark' Irish and English folk ballads (“Good dark songs. Man takes his woman down to the woods, stabs her and throws her in the river. None of the 'all flowers and butterflies' of today's music”) or her exposure as a young child to acoustic blues. She recalls the impact on her as a six-year-old with her father witnessing the itinerant preacher and blues singer performer Blind Pearly Brown play in the streets before introducing the song of the same name. Also underscoring the influence of blues and gospel on her are the inclusion of Elizabeth Cotton's Freight Train and Memphis Minnie's You Can't Rule Me.
Dark and painful songwriting has featured prominently in Williams' canon, often from first-hand experience. Pineola, she explains, tells of the suicide of her close friend and Southern poet Frank Stanford and personal trauma in her younger life were the motivators for the defiant Change The Locks and Joy, both powerfully performed. Stolen Moments mourns the loss of her confidante, Tom Petty, and her classic Car Wheels On A Gravel Road is introduced as daily life through her six-year-old eyes. Other highlights are the delicate Where The Song Will Find Me, which features sublime pedal steel guitar courtesy of Pettibone, Ghosts Of Highway 20 and a full-on delivery of Essence from her 2001 album of the same name. An impressive rendering of The Beatles, I've Got A Feeling is also performed.
Very much a survivor in an unforgiving and often impenetrable industry for non-conformists, and particularly women, Williams has and continues to operate on her own terms. That fearlessness and devotion to the art she worships has produced a back catalogue second to none, much of which was on display this evening.
Review and photography by Declan Culliton