Lucinda Williams at the BellyUp

[Brooks Montgomery]

My wife and I saw Lucinda Williams and her great band last nite at the Belly Up in Solana Beach,CA. Since her stroke several years ago, she’s not playing guitar, and she is assisted to her mic stand, and she hangs onto it a bit like she’s on a swaying ship. And she was great.

Her quirky vocals started out maybe a bit more off-key than her already unique drawl, but every bit as endearing. She had her old quiet under-stated self-deprecating humor. The crowd (a great crowd) constantly yelled, “We love you Lucinda!”.

Her band is simply bad-ass. Tight and rock’n. Doug Pettibone, amazing guitarist, also played pedal steel, but only on one song. Very tasty, I wish he had played more.

She sang several protest songs—crowd rising and cheering to the moment. The crowd was chock-full of musicians (you can size them up pretty easy), and I’m guessing the median age of the crowd was around 50. Maybe older.

Bottom line, at the end, my wife and I turned to each other and muttered in unison “that was awesome”.
Lucinda is a national treasure.

[Bill McCloskey]

I met Lucinda when I first moved to Austin in the early 80’s. She was sort of living hand to mouth and staying with a friend. her third Folkways record has just come out. She always had a joint in one hand and a pen in the other. Never saw here without her notebook, writing away. She suffered a long time before she made it.