The new album from Lucinda Williams — Good Souls Better Angels (2020)– is a far cry from her 1992 album Sweet Old World. Of course, the world has changed a lot since 1992 and so has Williams. But her new album, veering at times more toward punk music and blues than country, still reflects her great talent.
Recorded in Nashville with Williams’s band Buick 6, the album Good Souls Better Angels is from a powerful singer and strong person asserting herself amidst a crazy world. In the opening blues track, Williams proclaims, “You Can’t Rule Me,” and you believe her.
Her energy comes through on such songs as “Wakin’ Up,” about an abusive relationship, and “Man Without a Soul” (“You bring nothing good to this world”) about Donald Trump.
But she also reveals softer moments in some of the highlights of the album, including “Big Black Train” and the closing track “Good Souls.”
Many reviewers love the new album. Pitchfork calls it an “unsparing new album” with “some of the heaviest, most inspiring music of [Williams’s] career.” Others have compared it unfavorably with her best work. AllMusic reports that Good Souls Better Angels is “full of fierce, engrossing music from a great band with a mesmerizing frontwoman, but as fine as that is, it comes from someone who is capable of better work.”
I’m still listening to the album more and more. And although at this moment I do not yet know if it will become my favorite Lucinda Williams album, it is the album for our current era. Williams captures the anger, insanity, and, yes, beauty, of our times in a powerful album. And I’m not sure you can ask for more than that.
What do you think of Good Souls Better Angels? Leave your two cents in the comments.
There was a lot of love going around in last night’s tribute to John Prine called Pictire Show: Tribute to John Prine. Singers, performers, and friends appearing with stories and songs included Bonnie Raitt , Todd Snider, Sturgill Simpson, Brandi Carlile, Eric Church, Bill Murray, Kevin Bacon, Rita Wilson, and many others.
Throughout the tribute, Prine’s wife Fiona Prine makes several appearances to introduce artists. It is a loving tribute with great stories and music.
The full tribute is available for a limited time through Sunday, June 14. So, for now, check it out below. [Update: The full show is no longer online.]
Sturgill Simpson provided us with a musical treat during the coronavirus pandemic. To raise money for charity, Simpson and his band gave us some bluegrass performed live at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Due to the pandemic, there was no audience beyond those watching online.
When Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were closing out their 1999-2000 reunion tour with the E Street Band, Springsteen introduced a powerful new song, “American Skin (41 Shots).” The song, about an incident of police brutality, has prompted a few covers, none as powerful as one by Living Colour during the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 20, 2001.
Springsteen had debuted the song in Atlanta on June 4, 2000. And before the band closed the tour at Madison Square Garden, some called for a boycott of the concerts or called Springsteen names because of the song. Springsteen wrote “American Skin (41 Shots)” about NYPD officers killing Amadou Diallo in February 1999.
The police officers stopped Diallo at his front door because they thought he resembled a suspect. The immigrant from Guinea reached for his wallet and the four officers fired 41 shots, hitting Diallo 19 times and killing him. A year later, the officers were acquitted of second-degree murder and reckless endangerment.
Although officers, the New York City mayor, and others criticized Springsteen for the song, time has been kinder to the writer than to the critics. The compassionate song was not vilifying anyone but highlighting the racism in society that has led to so many other killings just since Diallo’s.
41 shots, Lena gets her son ready for school She says, “On these streets, Charles You’ve got to understand the rules If an officer stops you, promise me you’ll always be polite And that you’ll never ever run away Promise Mama you’ll keep your hands in sight”
Springsteen’s live performances of the song are powerful, often bringing up each member of the band one-at-a-time for the repeated refrain of “41 shots.” Others have covered the song, including Jackson Browne.
Living Colour performed “American Skin (41 Shots)” live at the Montreux Jazz Festival around one year after Springsteen had debuted the song. The band’s version is both powerful and heartbreaking, all the more painful because of its continuing relevance today with the deaths of those such as Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
Steve Earle’s latest album Ghosts of West Virginia features music that mostly came out of a play about a mine explosion that killed 29 miners in April 2010. The play was starting a successful run in New York until the coronavirus pandemic shut everything down. But fortunately we have Earle’s music in one of his strongest recent albums.
Earle’s previous album that is most similar to Ghosts of West Virginia is his 1999 bluegrass album The Mountain. Like that album, Ghosts of West Virginia avoids some of the rock sound that appears on many of Earle’s other albums.
For the most part, one might never guess that the album originated out of a play. Although the first song on the album, “Heaven Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” is reminiscent of a typical opening chorus for a play, the rest of the album stands on its own with strong songs and performances, such as for one of my favorite songs on the album,”The Mine.”
Earle began working on the album after Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen contacted him about a play they were working on about the Upper Big Branch mine disaster called Coal Country. In making the album, Earle traveled to West Virginia with Blank and Jensen to interview survivors of the explosion for further inspiration.
Earle, a liberal activist, has asserted that in making the album he wanted to try to find some common ground with people who might disagree with him politically. For this album, he explained he wanted to create “a record that speaks to and for people who didn’t vote the way I did.”
For Earle, though, using his art to explore other personalities and other views is nothing new. It is what an artist does. Earlier Steve Earle songs have humanized murderers (“Billy Austin”), death row prison guards (“Ellis Unit One”), outlaws (“Tom Ames’ Prayer”), and real-life American-turned enemy combatant John Walker Lindh (“John Walker’s Blues”). Although the Lindh song earned Earle some scorn in some corners, it is doubtful that anyone on either side of the political divide will find much argument with the humanity of Ghosts of West Virginia.
Earle also has a history of generosity in giving space to other artists even if those artists may upstage him. For example, on his 1996 album, Earle sang a duet with Lucinda Williams on the final song, “You’re Still Standing There,” and it was only the strength of an amazing album that kept Williams from stealing the show. And on his 2003 live album Just An American Boy, Earle gave his son and emerging artist Justin Townes Earle the final spot with the son’s song, “Time You Waste,” announcing the arrival of a great talent.
Here, on Ghosts of West Virginia, Earle does something similar, giving “If I Could See Your Face Again” — a standout song from the point of view of a miner’s widow — to Eleanor Whitmore of The Mastersons. Whitmore’s performance and the aching song breaks your heart (perhaps the added emotion comes from the fact that the Steve Earle & The Dukes album is the first since Earle lost his bassist and band member of 30 years, Kelley Looney).
If there is any weakness to this Steve Earle album, it is the short runtime. Coming in at slightly less than thirty minutes, one wishes Earle could have added more music. By the time you become immersed n the world of this West Virginia mining disaster, the album ends. On the other hand, it is not such a bad thing that an album leaves the listener wanting more.
What do you think of Ghosts of West Virginia? Leave your two cents in the comments.
