The Perth Concert Hall is a 1700 + seated venue on the site of the former Horsecross Market in Perth and was designed by BDP (Glasgow), winners of an international architectural competition. The £17m venue was a great setting for this concert as it had an intimate and personal feel to it which suited Lucinda Williams' style of song perfectly and, of course, the acoustics were great.
I really enjoyed the support act, a solo set by Jimmy Livingstone of Glasgow roots, but raised in Midlands suburbia. He was on fine form, if a little
breathless, and played songs mostly culled from his album One Eye Open, One Eye Closed.
The collection of songs sounded good enough as solo material, however, now
having heard the current album, the songs sound even better in the hands of the
band Jimmy gathered together to record them. I particularly like the single Dessert Song and The World Below My Feet, shades of
Richard Hawley in the vocal delivery and it is a song which Scott Walker would
have been happy to write! We had the added attraction of an early visit to
the stage by Doug Pettibone who came on to play pedal steel guitar on one
number as well. It sounded exquisite!
After a 15
minute 'ice cream' break, Lucinda Williams, Doug Pettibone and David Sutton
came on stage to an enthusiastic welcome, clearly many of the audience have
been here before, unlike 'yours truly'! This was my first time at one of Ms Williams' shows, although I have her body of recorded work back home.
Unfortunately, the hall was only about three quarters full which, given the
quality of performance we were about to witness, was a shame. However, as the
lady herself said, these are pretty austere times and she was extremely
thankful for those of us who had come out on a Friday night "to help
support live music".
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| The Band |
After a brief
introduction in that wonderful Louisianan drawl that is much
appreciated on this side of the pond, the band set off with a stomping version
of Randy Weeks' Can't Let Go
from her Grammy Award winning 1998 album Car
Wheels On A Gravel Road. (The award was for best contemporary folk
album as a matter of interest!)
From the
outset, the sound of Williams' acoustic guitar, Sutton's electric bass guitar
and Pettibone's lead electric guitar blended to create wonderful music, with
each instrument making a great contribution to the overall sound, but
also clearly heard on its own merit. Often the bass can be drowned
out by the drummer, but on this occasion David Sutton's playing was beautifully
clear.
60 year old
Williams was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1953 and the fact that her
father was a professor of literature, an amateur pianist and a poet
obviously helped her on her way as a musician of well written and often
poignant lyrics. About her mother, who suffered from alcoholism and
depression, she had this to say in an interview with Jane Shilling in the
Telegraph back in May this year: "From
the time I was born she was in therapy, and in and out of psychiatric
hospitals."
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| Lucinda Williams on electric guitar |
It is
therefore no real surprise that she deals mainly with the darker side of life,
love and death in her songs and we were treated to a number of sad, sombre down
beat numbers on the night. In the same interview, she also said: “I'm fascinated with the subject of suicide. I've suffered from horrible sadness, melancholia, as a lot of us do, but I
can’t imagine going to that place. My dad used to describe it as like a deep
dark well, and we’re all standing around the edge, and some of us fall
in." In fact, Lucinda Williams made reference to this fascination
in one of her informative and humorous chats between songs after singing
Pineola, which is perhaps one of the best examples of her dark, depressed work.
The song was written about the death of a close friend back when she was
growing up:
When Daddy
told me what happened
I couldn't
believe what he just said
Sonny shot
himself with a 44
And they
found him lyin' on his bed
I could not
speak a single word
No tears
streamed down my face
I just sat
there on the living room couch
Starin' off
into space
As a result
of her father’s work, she had a peripatetic, nomadic upbringing and lived in
Santiago, Mexico, where aged 17 she performed live for the first time, Baton
Rouge, New Orleans, Jackson, Mississippi, and Utah before settling
in Fayetteville, Arkansas. This helped to form a "world view of
life" from an early age and Williams' songs are written about places
like Jackson, Lafayette, Lake Charles and Baton Rouge.
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| Doug Pettibone |
Alongside
Williams was long term guitarist Doug Pettibone who was born and raised in Los Angeles, and like so many of these talented guys, started
playing guitar at the age of eight and his first teacher was Andy Summers,
formerly of The Police. He then studied with Eddie Lafreniere, guitarist
for big band leader Jimmy Dorsey, with whom he studied the music of Dave
Brubeck and Duke Ellington. Having gained a scholarship to Pepperdine
University Malibu for Jazz Guitar, Classical Guitar and Voice, Doug graduated
with a triple major in 1984.
In the last
few years, Pettibone has played live and/or recorded with some of the most
influential artists around, among them Keith Richards, Norah Jones, Steve
Earle, Elvis Costello, Joan Baez, Mark Knopfler, Marianne
Faithfull, Sting, Ray LaMontagne, Michelle Shocked, Vic Chesnutt and Lisa
Marie Presley, to name a few! Doug’s style of guitar playing is
extremely well suited to Williams’ idiosyncratic, Southern-inflected blend of country,
folk and rock and he has been working with her off and on since 2001. I have
seen some pretty impressive guitarists this year including Wilco Johnson, Ian Siegal,
James De Prado, Mark Knopfler and Doug was easily as good as these guys. His
solos were a joy to listen to and at times he played two different guitars during one
song, before swapping on to the pedal steel guitar.
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| David Sutton |
The last band
member was David Sutton on bass and he played in a wonderful lolling style, at
times it looked as if he were unconcerned by gravity and reminded me of the
movement we associate with the early moon walks! David has, in his time, played
bass for Dolly Parton, Randy Newman, Melissa Etheridge, Stan Ridgeway
& The Monkees, so an impressive pedigree there too. David also performed
superb backing vocals and at times the harmonies between the three artists on
stage was wonderful. He also at one point turned his guitar, strings facing
down, and thumped out a drum beat on the back of the instrument! The
build up of music between these three gave me the mental image of Lucinda
Williams’ electric guitar work spreading thick layers of butter icing, whilst
Doug Pettibone and David Sutton spraying magical guitar notes on top, like ‘hundreds-and-thousands’
on a cake!
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| David Sutton thumping the bass |
Stand out songs on the night were Pineola, Copenhagen, written about the death of Williams’ manager and
one of those mournful songs at which she excels, Jailhouse Tears from the album Little Honey (on which she duets
with Elvis Costello on the album version) and a wonderful version of Skip James’
Hard Times Killing Floor Blues. This
last song had a great thumping bass and built up in to a mantra-esque work out
which had me grooving along nicely!
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| Lucinda Williams & Doug Pettibone |
Along the way, we also had Drunken Angel from 1998s Car Wheels
On A Gravel Road which was written about Michael David Fuller, better known as Blaze Foley, a colourful local character from Texas and a friend of the equally
tragic Townes Van Zandt. Williams described him as "a genius and a beuatiful loser" after his untimely death at the age of 39. We also had the wonderful Those
Three Days form 2003s World Without Tears album and includes the
brilliantly cutting lyrics:
Did you only want me for those three days?
Did you love me forever
just for those three days?
After a scintillating hour and fifteen
minutes, the show came to an end at about 22:00 and the band left the stage to
a raucous standing ovation. Then, after some rousing encouragement, the
threesome returned to do a three song encore which started with a memorable version
of Springsteen’s Factory from
his 1978 Darkness On The Edge Of Town album and ended with a great version of the gospel tinged Get Right With God from Williams' 2001 album Essence and had some seriously
good boogie guitar and bass beats. A great end to a wonderfully entertaining show.
Gig started @ 20:45
Can't Let Go
Crescent City
Pineola
Lake Charles
When I look At The World
Copenhagen
Blue
Jailhouse Tears
Concrete & Barbed Wire
Drunken Angle
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Those Three Days
Hard Times Killing Floor Blues – Skip James
Come On
Essence
Joy
Honey Bee
Encore
Factory - Springsteen
Blessed
Get Right With God
Gig ended @ 22:22
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