Gig review: Lucinda Williams at Holmfirth Picturedrome

Tonight’s superbly spirited and thoroughly energised show kicks off with Let’s Get The Band Back Together, a rumbling rocker that entertainingly seeks to out-enthuse Bruce Springsteen’s odes to the magic of musical comradeship from Lucinda Williams’s 15th studio album, last year’s much-acclaimed Stories from a Rock N Roll Heart.

It’s a small miracle that the 71-year old Louisiana-born songwriting legend is here in Holmfirth with her musicians at the sold-out Picturedrome tonight to (as the song’s mission statement has it) “do it again”.

Williams suffered a stroke in 2020, a health emergency serious enough to cast doubt on the feasibility of remaining an active touring musician. Consequently, Williams is unable to play guitar on stage and generally appears more physically frail than during her epic 2019 show at the Picturedrome. There is absolutely nothing even remotely delicate or tentative about tonight’s consistently powerful and grittily dynamic performance, however.

Front and centre in the clear mix, Williams’s voice appears clear of the more overt wear and tear which became noticeable on recent albums such as 2020’s Good Souls Better Angels.

Dressed in a black leather jacket, Williams is supported to the stage, but once secure in her spot behind the microphone, she gives every impression of having no interest in leaving until chosen highlights from almost every corner of her vast catalogue are thoroughly examined, in high octane yet nuanced versions that often outperform their studio counterparts.

Thanks in large part to 1998’s near-perfect alt. country landmark Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Williams is still most readily associated with country music. Although hints of twang crop up when pedal steel makes an appearance for the haunting Lake Charles and Jukebox’s testimonial to the companionly power of music (off the new album, and already sounding like a timeless standard), Williams’s current live show is rooted in another key strand of American roots music: the blues.

The set includes an unrecorded tribute to Blind Pearly Brown, a long-gone Georgia gospel-blues street performer (who Williams credits with helping to launch her immersion in music), and a gritty stomp through ZZ Top’s seminal 12-bar standard Jesus Just Left Chicago.

The superb four-piece band are perfectly suited for this direction: the proceedings maintain an earthily sweaty forward momentum throughout, and the duelling guitars of Marc Ford (formerly of the Black Crowes) and Doug Pettibone – sharp enough to shave wood with on Dust, spectral and haunting on Ghosts of Highway 20 – draw several rounds of applause from the captivated crowd.

Whether flashing a smile whenever a band member exceeds their quota of rock action, introducing songs with engaging anecdotes from different periods of her never less than adventurous life (catalogued more extensively on last year’s superb memoir Don’t Tell Anybody The Secrets I Told You) or throwing devil’s horns hand signals at members of the road crew whenever the band lock into a particularly juicy groove (which is often), it’s quite clear that Williams, whose gratitude at the deservedly rapturous reception of the capacity crowd seems more than mere professional courtesy, is having a good time tonight – and it’s infectious.