Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Lucinda Williams's Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone
Singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams is an acquired taste. If you have it, Christmas came early this year with the release of her new double-disc Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone. The set collects 19 new songs and a cover of the late J.J. Cale’s “Magnolia,” which is nine minutes of Williams’s Bayou roots and swampy guitar taking you on a hypnotic, soulful trip.
Williams’s honest lyrics, imperfect voice, and driving lead guitar have always been a window into her emotions and vulnerability. But on several songs on this album, she shows a new confidence coping with past grief and optimism for future possibilities.
“Walk On” is a hard-driving rocker with lyrics that put a boot to her past troubles: “You've got to make them understand you’re the lead singer in the band, so walk on.” “Protection” is another blaster with blues-rock guitars reminiscent of ZZ Top, as Williams, no longer the victim of love, sings “I need protection from the enemy of love.”
“West Memphis” is a Johnny Cash–style story song about an unsolved crime, with guest Tony Joe White's bluesy guitar and harp haunting the bottom range of the track, which has a retro, rusty John Fogarty sound. “This Old Heartache” is a classic tear-jerking country cut. And my personal favorite, “Stand Right by Me,” has a soulful groove with a catchy hook that lingers long after the song ends: “We gotta stand right by each other/ We gotta try harder/ I gotta stand right by you/ And you gotta stand right by me.”
If you are not familiar with the music of Lucinda Williams, these 20 songs are an appropriate inroad to her past 20 years. Not to mention a great value of two records for the price of one! And if you’re a seasoned fan, as I am, this is simply her best so far. But you probably already know that.
- Record: Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone
- Artist: Lucinda Williams
- Label: Highway 20 Records
- Disc 1: (1) Compassion (2) Protection (3) Burning Bridges (4) East Side of Town (5) West Memphis (6) Cold Day in Hell (7) Foolishness (8) Wrong Number (9) Stand Right by Each Other (10) It's Gonna Rain;
- Disc 2: (1) Something Wicked This Way Comes (2) Big Mess (3) When I Look at the World (4) Walk On (5) Temporary Nature (6) Everything But the Truth (7) This Old Heartache (8) Stowaway in Your Heart (9) One More Day (10) Magnolia
Here's something you might be interested in.
Lucinda Williams's Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone
Lucinda Williams's Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone
Singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams is an acquired taste. If you have it, Christmas came early this year with the release of her new double-disc Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone. The set collects 19 new songs and a cover of the late J.J. Cale’s “Magnolia,” which is nine minutes of Williams’s Bayou roots and swampy guitar taking you on a hypnotic, soulful trip.
Williams’s honest lyrics, imperfect voice, and driving lead guitar have always been a window into her emotions and vulnerability. But on several songs on this album, she shows a new confidence coping with past grief and optimism for future possibilities.
“Walk On” is a hard-driving rocker with lyrics that put a boot to her past troubles: “You've got to make them understand you’re the lead singer in the band, so walk on.” “Protection” is another blaster with blues-rock guitars reminiscent of ZZ Top, as Williams, no longer the victim of love, sings “I need protection from the enemy of love.”
“West Memphis” is a Johnny Cash–style story song about an unsolved crime, with guest Tony Joe White's bluesy guitar and harp haunting the bottom range of the track, which has a retro, rusty John Fogarty sound. “This Old Heartache” is a classic tear-jerking country cut. And my personal favorite, “Stand Right by Me,” has a soulful groove with a catchy hook that lingers long after the song ends: “We gotta stand right by each other/ We gotta try harder/ I gotta stand right by you/ And you gotta stand right by me.”
If you are not familiar with the music of Lucinda Williams, these 20 songs are an appropriate inroad to her past 20 years. Not to mention a great value of two records for the price of one! And if you’re a seasoned fan, as I am, this is simply her best so far. But you probably already know that.
- Record: Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone
- Artist: Lucinda Williams
- Label: Highway 20 Records
- Disc 1: (1) Compassion (2) Protection (3) Burning Bridges (4) East Side of Town (5) West Memphis (6) Cold Day in Hell (7) Foolishness (8) Wrong Number (9) Stand Right by Each Other (10) It's Gonna Rain;
- Disc 2: (1) Something Wicked This Way Comes (2) Big Mess (3) When I Look at the World (4) Walk On (5) Temporary Nature (6) Everything But the Truth (7) This Old Heartache (8) Stowaway in Your Heart (9) One More Day (10) Magnolia