Tuesday Jun 9, 2015
Tuesday, June 9, 7:30PM
Weesner Family Amphitheater – Minnesota Zoo
13000 Zoo Blvd
Apple Valley, MN 55124
Lucinda Williams has been maneuvering down a path all her own for more than three decades now, emerging from Lake Charles, Louisiana, having been imbued with a “culturally rich, economically poor” worldview. Several years of playing the hardscrabble clubs of her adopted state of Texas gave her a solid enough footing to record a self-titled album that would become a touchstone for the embryonic Americana movement. While not a huge commercial success at the time,Lucinda Williams retained a cult reputation, and finally got the reception it deserved upon its reissue earlier this year. For much of the next decade, she moved around the country, turning out work that won immense respect within the industry (winning a Grammy Award for Mary Chapin Carpenter’s version of “Passionate Kisses”) and a growing cult audience. Her first Grammy as a performer was marked by 1998’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.
The past decade brought further development, both musically and personally, as evidenced on albums like West (2007) and Blessed (2011). Those albums retained much of Williams’ trademark melancholy and southern Gothic starkness, but also exuded more rays of light and hope – hues that were no doubt imparted by a more soothing personal life, as well as a more settled creative space. Those vibes come to the fore once again on Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone. While she stays very much rooted in the here and now, Williams also conjures up the spirit of classic ‘70s country soul. The resulting warmth of tone gives the album a late-night front-porch vibe – letting the sounds envelop the listener like a blanket of dewy air.