Lucinda Williams – Stories from a Rock N Roll Heart (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Lucinda Williams – Stories from a Rock N Roll Heart (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:07 minutes | 963 MB | Genre: Rock, Americana
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Highway 20 Records

Lucinda Williams, a celebrated singer-songwriter known for her powerful storytelling and emotional authenticity is set to release her 15th studio album titled “Stories from a Rock N Roll Heart” on June 30th. This album will follow closely after the release of her highly anticipated memoir “Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir” due out April 25th. “Stories from a Rock N Roll Heart” features guest appearances from Bruce Springsteen, Margo Price, and Angel Olsen among others. This album features an all star cast of musicians as well, featuring members of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers and The Replacements. Throughout her career, Lucinda has been honored with numerous accolades, including three Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association and induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone describes her as “one of America’s best songwriters.”

“No one’s brought the curtain down/ Maybe you should stick around/ Until the stage goes black/ Maybe there’s one last twist,” Lucinda Williams sings on “New York Comeback” from her 15th studio album, Stories from a Rock n Roll Heart. After all: “You wouldn’t want to miss/ My New York comeback.” Lean and joyful like a Springsteen song, it features The Boss himself and Patti Scialfa accompanying Williams and serving as living proof that age ain’t nothing but a number. Thirty years ago, Williams already sounded world-weary on her now-classic Sweet Old World. Now, at 70, her voice—a mix of wild honey, smoky rasp and swampy Louisiana twang—still captivates, even though the purr is rustier and the soft vowels are somehow even more slurred. She reminisces on the old days and hanging out with friends every night of the week on “Last Call for the Truth,” asking for “one more taste of my lost youth” but admitting “Now it’s time to take the last cab home … ‘Cause the night, it ain’t so young anymore.” But Williams isn’t stepping quietly into her eighth decade, even after suffering a stroke in 2020. “Sometimes my idle mind hates what it finds/ These days, my world seems so small/ I’m a prisoner inside these four walls,” she sings on “Jukebox,” finding salvation by escaping to the corner bar—”so close I don’t need a car”—and its Wurlitzer full of Patsy Cline and Muddy Waters. As the guitar teems with emotion and a light drum shuffle mimics her ambling down the street, Williams projects a Leonard Cohen level of gravitas that’s all the more poignant thanks to Angel Olsen’s backing.

Buddy Miller and Margo Price also show up on the album, as does Tommy Stinson on “Hum’s Liquor,” a brutal and stunning study of his brother, Replacements co-founder Bob Stinson, who died at 35 from organ failure caused by drug and alcohol abuse. Williams’ husband and collaborator, Tom Overby, was a neighbor who would watch Stinson walk to the Minneapolis liquor store every morning, “Into the black and blue/ dragging demons around with you.” Bright and shiny “Stolen Moments” is a tribute to Williams’ late friend Tom Petty, who she thinks about while driving down Sunset Boulevard, riding in a New York taxi but flying 30,000 feet in the air, memories tugging at her like phantom limbs. One of three songs co-written with Jesse Malin, “Let’s Get the Band Back Together” is all Stonesy stomp and strut, Williams’ voice the sonic equivalent of wavy glass. And prideful, muscular “Rock n Roll Heart” is a shot of dopamine, with the singer declaring, “You don’t have to be that smart/ You don’t have to be a work of art/ As long as you’ve got a rock n roll heart/” And you certainly don’t have to check out; Overby has said that Williams’ next album is already almost done. – Shelly Ridenour

Tracklist:
01. Lucinda Williams – Let’s Get the Band Back Together (04:42)
02. Lucinda Williams – New York Comeback (04:14)
03. Lucinda Williams – Last Call For The Truth (05:24)
04. Lucinda Williams – Jukebox (04:34)
05. Lucinda Williams – Stolen Moments (04:48)
06. Lucinda Williams – Rock N Roll Heart (03:47)
07. Lucinda Williams – This Is Not My Town (05:32)
08. Lucinda Williams – Hum’s Liquor (04:06)
09. Lucinda Williams – Where The Song Will Find Me (06:34)
10. Lucinda Williams – Never Gonna Fade Away (05:22)

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