The travails that Lucinda Williams has suffered over the past two years would sap the strength of even the strongest individuals. Losing a new home to a storm, enduring a stroke that temporarily rendered her ability to walk, and still unable to play the guitar, Williams has sufficiently recovered enough not only to record this album but to resume touring. Though her voice has changed somewhat, she is singing stronger than ever. Without her guitar, she had to modify her writing process too and relies on co-writing with her husband, Tom Overby, and with New York singer-songwriter Jesse Malin as well as her longtime road manager Travis Stephens, a guitarist in several Nashville bands. Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart evolved gradually as Williams got stronger. The renowned co-producer and engineer Ray Kennedy (Car Wheels on a Gravel Road) returned along with frequent collaborator, guitarist Stuart Mathis, drummer Steve Ferrone, keyboardist Reese Wynans, bassist Steve Mackey, and even her former guitarist Doug Pettibone, who plays pedal steel and guitar – an exceptionally strong supporting cast.
Without being able to teach the band the songs on the guitar, she instead would sing it to give them the idea of the feel and vibe. While this too was challenging, musicians of this caliber delivered as expected, resulting in an album that’s within the top five of the sixteen she has released. Not only is Lucinda’s return triumphant but it is celebratory from inception with the kickoff track, the crisp, punchy “Let’s Get the Band Back Together” boasting a bevy of background singers including Buddy Miller and Margo Price as well as the twin searing guitars and swirling B3. That same instrumentation drives the thematic issued single “New York Comeback” with Bruce Springsteen and Patty Scialfa joining Lu on the choruses, as they do later on the flat-out rocking narrative title track, the latter especially carrying a “Bruce” vibe.
There are moving ballads that give the album a balance such as the nostalgic yearning for the youthful years in the anthemic “Last Call for the Truth” with Siobhan Maher Kennedy on gorgeous harmonies and Pettibone’s pedal steel and Wynans’ B3 meshing together beautifully to frame Lu’s vocal and a poignant Mathis guitar solo. Acoustic guitar strums introduce “Jukebox,” likely a pandemic tune with the lines “going crazy with the sound of my own voice” that features stellar pedal steel from Pettibone and Wynans on piano along with Angel Olson on harmony vocals. You’ll likely hear the other single, a testament to her strength and will to keep writing and singing in the orchestral bathed “Where the Song Will Find Me.” (“I wanna feel that moment/When the song can save me”) These three rank among the very best in her catalog.
Lucinda’s albums always have bluesy elements, and we find them here in the bluesy protest, “This Is Not My Town” where she’s joined again by Margo Price as they decry the gentrification of presumably Music City, replete with angry, screaming guitars and thunderous drums. Taking the opposite tact, the tender, elegiac, mid-tempo “Stolen Moments,” nods to her lost friend, Tom Petty. Another ballad mourns the loss of another friend, Bob Stinson, founding lead guitarist of the Replacements, who made daily trips to the titled “Hum’s Liquor.” The habit cut Stinson’s life short and his brother, Tommy Stinson. sings on the track to add gravitas to a lost “rock n roll heart.” In yet another softer touch, Lucinda closes with her ode to the healing power of music with “Never Gonna Fade Away.”
This is indeed as animated as we’ve heard Lucinda in some time. Her articulation and her songs are strong, while buoyed by excellent backing musicians, vocalists, and superb production values.
