An Evening with Lucinda Williams and Her Band

After spending the summer on tour with Bob Dylan, Williams returns to LOH to “confront the trouble in America’s social landscape with the kind of uncompromising and inspiring storytelling that only she can channel.” (Relix)

“My dad, as a poet, always told me to never censor myself — that’s one of his cardinal rules of creative writing,” says the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter. “That became my motto which I’ve stuck by all these years.”

Miller Williams’ advice clearly is born out on the alt-country pioneer’s powerful new studio album, the provocative World’s Gone Wrong. “I felt a sense of urgency in making this record,” she adds.

Filled with gut-wrenching topical songs, the album was written and recorded in a blast of collaborative creativity with her primary cowriters: husband/manager/co-producer Tom Overby and guitarist Doug Pettibone.

A whole other album had been in the works, but that “urgency” to address our current cataclysmic socio-political situation motivated Lucinda and company to cut World’s Gone Wrong in direct response. “Music is a powerful weapon,” she points out. “I want this record to make people aware, wake them up. I like to push people’s buttons.”

On the gripping title track, the lyrics give voice to the lives of baffled everyday Americans: a nurse and a car salesman “workin’ long hours” and “lookin’ for comfort in a song.”

And that comfort is what Lucinda’s fans have come to depend on over the past 45 years. With a back catalog of remarkable albums (including 1998’s game-changing Car Wheels on a Gravel Road) and countless accolades — including being named by Time as America’s Best Songwriter in 2001 — Williams is one of our most revered artists. And in these troubling times, we need the light she shines on World’s Gone Wrong more than ever before.