Lucinda Williams: Deadpan queen of Americana

Aug 6 2009 By John Bottomley

LUCINDA Williams finally emerged from her status as cult singer-songwriter with her Grammy award winning Car Wheels on a Gravel Road released 10 years ago.

But the fact that the album picked up the prize for "best contemporary folk album" itself illustrated a dichotomy.

The record was not only a collection of wonderful songs, but one that was soaked in country guitar twang, rock ‘n’ roll attitude and Louisiana blues. Rock journalists were soon to develop a term for this loose framework. They called it Americana – and Lucinda is its queen.

"I love it, I never have to make a choice," she told the mainly adoring audience at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, explaining her love for playing country, rock and delta blues. But the musical mix isn’t the only thing that’s sweet and sour.

On stage Williams manages to appear both streetwise and flustered. Despite delivering a set which included songs she’s been playing for 30 years, she still needed a music stand for the lyrics and twice messed up the start of one number – claiming it was in the wrong key, only to be told gently by her bass player she wasn’t playing it correctly.

Apparently it’s always been this way. But when she drawled hesitantly through introducing members of her excellent backing band Buick 6, I got flustered myself thinking she was about to forget their names!

But what I feared was to be an indisciplined set, too deadpan and laid back for its own good, finally emerged as an Americana tour de force. Metal Firecracker was a twangy treat, Honey Bee and Out of Touch were exciting big-guitar rockers, while heartfelt ballads Bus to Baton Rouge, Something About What Happens When We Talk and the achingly sensual Essence revealed the battered, raw emotion in her distinctive delivery.