When a singer stops her band midway through the first two songs of her set it just might not be a good sign. But Tuesday night at The Pabst Theater Lucinda Williams and her band willed the train to stay on track.
Williams’ vibrato-rich voice wasn’t quite ready at curtain time ("I told you guys we shouldn’t have went to that smoky bar last night," she scolded her band before a false start). After apologizing and regaining her composure she said, " Sometimes when this happens it means we are going to do a really good show".
Then Williams and her three-piece group went beyond a really good show and delivered something better: a really interesting show. The delicate tortured artist was nowhere to be found when she decided it was showtime.
Pick a dozen of your favorite tunes from her eight studio albums and it is a good bet she did not play them. What Williams did play was a set heavily weighted to the moody, atmospheric mid-tempo tunes from her last few albums -- often swaying and seeming to dance with her acoustic guitar.
By the time she dug into "Essence" it was obvious Williams was in for the long haul. Mainstay gunslinger Doug Pettibone’s arsenal of vintage guitars came in handy, oozing effects, slides and distortion. And when Williams changed the pace, the tunes were served by contrast.
"Still I Long For Your Kiss" found her band (Pettibone, bassist David Sutton and drummer Butch Norton) channelling "Dusty in Memphis." Bringing the tune alive as an all out soul number made you realize what a shame Wilson Pickett never recorded the tune. To her credit Williams did bring out opener Charlie Louvin for a pair of songs -- a true country music legend from his days performing with his late brother Ira.
Williams and Louvin duetted on the brothers’ 1955 hit "When I Stop Dreaming". Then as they launched into Williams; "Get Right With God" the 80-year-old Louvin stole the show, even as he referred to a lyric sheet. To see Louvin and Williams dance out the end of the tune was a moment for the Pabst Theater archives.
Williams lyrics have always been her strength but she is also savvy in how she allows her band to imbue the tunes. "Unsuffer Me" was gradually constructed into a throbbing piece of musical architecture with Pettibone’s looping guitar phrases propelled by Norton’s pulsing toms.
At various solo sections during the show Norton unleashed John Bonham-esque drum riffs and Pettibone wailed like a kid not unfamiliar to the heyday of FM rock radio. Returning for a three tune encore Williams slightly rearranged "Like A Rose" came off as a cousin to the Velvet Underground’s chamber folk of "Sunday Morning" thanks to Sutton’s arco bass.
Charlie Louvin’s opening set featured tunes that have been picked up by bands with discerning taste over the years from Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris to Nick Cave. To hear Louvin sing "The Christain Life", "The Great Atomic Power" and "Cash on the Barrellhead" was a primer in what was great about country music.
