Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams ( born January 26, 1953 in Lake Charles, Louisiana) is an American roots-rock and country musician. It was not until 20 years after her debut she succeeded in 1998 with the album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, the commercial breakthrough. Today it is one of the most famous representatives of the genre. In 2002 she was chosen by Time Magazine as the best songwriter of the United States.

• 2.1 albums
• 2.2 Guest appearances
• 2.3 DVD

Biography

Williams was the daughter of poet and literature professor Miller Williams. Her father worked as a visiting professor in Mexico and Chile, and in different locations in the Southern U.S. before he became a professor at the University of Arkansas. The experience of traveling influenced personality and music of Lucinda Williams very strong. At an early age she showed an interest in music and began playing guitar at age 12.

The Early Years

Early 20s Williams began performing publicly. She played in Austin and Houston, a mixture of folk, rock and country. In 1978, she moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where she recorded her debut album, Ramblin ' for the traditional folk Label Smithsonian / Folkways. It was a compilation of various country and blues covers. 1980 was followed by the album Happy Woman Blues, which consisted entirely of original songs. Neither of the two albums attracted considerable attention.

In the 1980s, Lucinda Williams moved to Los Angeles, where she signed with the independent record label Rough Trade Records. In 1988 here her self-titled album, Lucinda Williams. The song Like A Rose appeared also on the compilation Music For The 90 's, Vol 1, what you do not necessarily procured in Europe in their proper audience a little notoriety: were on this label overview for advertising purposes conveniently sold otherwise mostly rock bands such as New Order, Happy Mondays or the Pixies represented. In the U.S., after all, the single " Changed the Locks " was played over a broken relationship on the radio, which she won fans among music lovers and musicians, including Tom Petty and the silos, both who covered the song later. Songs from this album were relatively promptly enacted by the Schramm and Johnny Rodriguez.

In 1992, the album Sweet Old World on the label Chameleon. It was a very melancholy plate autobiographical dealt in part with the suicide and death of friends. Williams was especially successful as a songwriter in the early 1990s: Mary Chapin Carpenter took in 1992 a cover of their song " Passionate Kisses ", which became a country hit in 1994, and Williams earned a Grammy Award for Best Country Song.

Williams has since been especially critical and popular music insiders, but her commercial success was modest. Emmylou Harris, who also coverte compositions by Williams with Crescent City and Sweet Old World, said of her: "She is an example of the best that country music to be at least maintained. But for some reason it is not perceived. I have a strong feeling that the country music thereby missing out. "

Lucinda Williams brought up in the reputation for being a perfectionist and slow when working in the studio. It took six years until the next album, however, they appeared as a guest on the albums of other artists and contributed songs to several compilations. Among other things, she was invited by Steve Earle, on the 1996 album I Feel Alright to sing a duet.

The commercial breakthrough

1998 she succeeded then with Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, the commercial breakthrough. The album contained among other things the Single Still I Long for Your Kiss, which could also be heard in Robert Redford film The Horse Whisperer, making the album a lot of attention and discussed. It won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Williams toured with Bob Dylan, who had strongly influenced her musical development.

Williams' next album Essence (2001 ) continued success. Here are economically produced to hear simpler songs, with which the artist further away from the mainstream country music and her new fans brought in the alternative music scene. In 2002, she won the Grammy Award for Best Female Rockinterpretin for the single " Get Right With God", an atypically rapid Gospel -rock from the otherwise subdued album.

Your seventh album, World Without Tears appeared in 2003. On the musically diverse and lyrically gloomy album they remained true to their style of melancholic country ballads and mid-tempo rock numbers, but also experimented among other rap and electric blues, which she at live concerts celebrates as the root of their music, especially in the encores.

After that, the album West followed on 13 February 2007. Already half years later, on 10 October 2008, the latest work Little Honey appeared with 13 new songs. On 1 March 2011 the album Blessed was released.

Discography

Albums

• Ramblin ' (1979 )
• Happy Woman Blues (1980 )
• Lucinda Williams ( 1988)
• Sweet Old World ( 1992)
• Car Wheels on a Gravel Road ( 1998)
• Essence (2001)
• World Without Tears (2003, HDCD - encoded)
• Live @ the Fillmore (2006)
• Car Wheels on a Gravel Road - Deluxe Edition (with alternate takes and bonus live CD ) (2006 )
• West ( 2007)
• Little Honey (2008)
• Blessed (2011 ) 2 CD, Universal Music Entertainment, Berlin, MCA Records LC01056.
• Lucinda Williams ( 25th Anniversary Reissue, a double CD, 2014)

Guest appearances

DVD

• Lucinda Williams - Live from Austin, TX 1989 ( recorded October 13, 1989, published 2008)
• Lucinda Williams - Live from Austin, TX ( recorded December 5, 1998, published 2005)

Awards

Three Grammys

• For Best Country Song ( 1994)
• For Best Contemporary Folk Album ( 1998)
• For Best Female Rock performance (2002)

Swell