Good Souls Better Angels-Lucinda Williams

MAY 3, 2020 Originally on www.tearstainedeye.com

Lucinda Williams-Good Souls Better Angels

Highway 20/Thirty Tigers (Cooking Vinyl Australia)

Let me get this out of the way. This is the most important record that Lucinda Williams has recorded in her career.  

Lucinda Williams not only channels what is locked within her own consciousness and soul, but she touches on what is reverberating within all of us. Especially now. She slams the hammer into the head of the nail to make it clear that there needs to be change. She knows that it will not be easy.

Kicking this record off with a bluesy rebellious rocker, You Can’t Rule Me, it sets the stage for the 12 tracks on display here. Her backing band Buick 6 just create  the groove and Stuart Mathis winds his solos around this track and throughout. Mathis has put in his work and has joined the legendary list of fabulous guitar players who have toured with Williams. We won’t keep score on who is the best because each one of them has coloured Ms. Williams records and tours beautifully.

Bad News Blues continues the grittiness that coats this gathering of songs. We know this was recorded before where we are right now…. but how topical is this:

“No matter where I go I can’t seem to get away from it

Don’t you know, don’t you know, I’m knee deep in it

Who’s gonna believe liars and lunatics

Fools and thieves and clowns and hypocrites

Gluttony and greed, and that ain’t the worst of it

All the news you can read, all the news that’s fit to print”-Bad News Blues

Man Without A Soul. Just go find this track and listen to it. People have been telling Lucinda who the track is about without her having to go out and say it. You know who it is about. Really, this is not a riddle!

Williams has taken the rawness of Neil Young, the grit of The Heartbreakers and the blues of America to deliver what is her most raucous and raw record to date. Meditations on domestic violence, politics, and the darkness of where we are is what we need right now. We don’t need no pop songs. We need to hear some truths. This ain’t no party, definitely no disco and certainly no fooling around.

This album was recorded in Nashville with Buick 6 and all were re-aligned with Car Wheels On A Gravel Road producer, Ray Kennedy. Just coming off the road the tracks were recorded quickly and were going to be touched up a bit later, but the proper decision was made. Leave them be. Let them speak.  

But take care, this is no “Car Wheels”. Times have changed.

Buick 6 is Mathis, Butch Norton on drums and David Sutton on bass. That is all there is on this record. This is not a record of broken hearts and bleeding fingers. This collection is about the darkness of our times and looking for the light that does keep shining. Although at times it appears to be dimming. Let’s not let it go out.

“Yeah, you got your shadows
And you got your doubts
And you got your battles
But you fought your way out

Yeah, these are the dark, blue days
That much is true
And there’s so many ways
To crush you”-Shadows and Doubts

Lucinda keeps delivering. Her vocals are here to heal us and make us think. We need more of this from thinking and creative artists. We need to build this community to ensure that what we have does not disappear in the years to come. There is much work to be done and we must keep fighting and we cannot lose our spark. Hang on tight and don’t be afraid.

This album has pain, speedballs, the devil, a man without a soul, bad news and more. And even with the pain of the past and present, there is hope for the future. Let these words from Good Souls, the closing track, be your mantra for these troubled times and keep you strong.

“Keep me in the hands of saints

Keep me with the good souls

With the better angels

Keep me with all of those

Who help me find strength

When I’m feeling hopeless

Who guide me along

And help me stay strong and fearless

Keep me with all the ones

Who have a hand at my back

When I’ve strayed from the path

Who help me get home” –Good Souls

Get this record in any format you like and hold it like the treasure it is.