Lucinda Williams
McCabe's Guitar Shop
Santa Monica, CA
March 1, 2014
JEMS Master

Church Audio CA-11 mics > Edirol R-09HR (24/96) > Peak 6.0 with iZotope Ozone 5 > iZotope RX3 > convert to 16/44 > FLAC

01 Passionate Kisses
02 Side of the Road
03 Lake Charles
04 West Memphis
05 When I Look at the World
06 Pineola
07 Crescent City
08 People Talking
09 Bus to Baton Rouge
10 Over Time
11 Concrete and Barbed Wire
12 Burning Bridges
13 Everything But the Truth
14 Something Wicked This Way Comes
15 Changed the Locks
16 It Tears Me Up (Dan Penn)
17 Essence
18 Joy
19 Magnolia (J.J. Cale)
20 Blessed
21 Get Right With God

Lucinda's World Tour of Los Angeles revisited several of her old haunts, none more auspicious than McCabe's Guitar Shop where she often performed in the late '80s and early '90s.

While JEMS has recorded Lucinda going all the way back to 1992, there was a long pause of late. Why? Occasionally, after seeing an artist so many times in their prime, it can be difficult to reconcile show 15 or 16 that just doesn't measure up to show 3, 5 or 7 years earlier, especially when it still has so many songs in common.

Maybe I had just seen Lucinda too much and play too well to see her be very good but not great. But somehow, after 10 or so years, the announcement of the McCabe's show felt like the right time to dive back in and I'm glad I did.

With so much time passed, this Lucinda show felt fresh and vital, and while it didn't take me back to the Gurf Morlix and Dr. C days, it had purpose and appeal all its own, thanks in no small part to the lead guitar work of Stuart Mathis, who played brilliantly across the whole set and had me using the phrase "tasty licks" in complete sincerity.

Lucinda too, many more miles down the road, felt reborn. While the first couple of songs had me wondering if the voice was still there, about ten minutes into the show, her vocals opened up and she sounded great all night. I was also reminded about how much I enjoy her audience chatter when she is in the moment, and at a venue as intimate as McCabes, she was.

The set (as did the entire LA tour) offered an appealing mix of brand new songs destined for her next album and well-selected choices that spanned much of her career. It wasn't a hits set at all, and all credit to her and the band for mixing it up so much across the Los Angeles dates where they performed 69 different songs in ten shows, according to Lucinda forum poster, "paul_from_losangeles."

Highlights for me included "Lake Charles," "Pineola," "Concrete and Barbed Wire" and covers of Dan Penn's "It Tears Me Up" and JJ Cale's "Magnolia," both of which should be on Lu's next release, which she said would be a double album.

While my taping position wasn't ideal, a respectful crowd lead to what I think is a very listenable recording. Samples provided.

Loads of credit and kudos to Falconidave, who recorded four of the other LA dates and definitely influenced me to tape this show on the off chance he wouldn't be there. His tapes from the rest of the LA run are all worth getting.

BK for JEMS