poetic characters
The artist crafts songs that reimagine life as a vivid, sometimes fragile, yet relentlessly resilient journey. Stories From A Rock’N’Roll Heart speaks to how music can mirror the sharpest moments of existence, drawing inspiration from Lucinda Williams and the enduring mystery of songwriting. This is music that carries a life-affirming glow, born from a difficult creative path that was navigated with grit and perseverance.
We see a narrative of endurance in the wake of catastrophe: a hurricane that upended a home, the global pandemic, and a stroke in 2020 that left the left side temporarily weakened. Yet the show went on. Within weeks, performances resumed, and appearances at events like the Azkena Rock Festival reminded audiences of a musician who refuses to quit. This is a story of recovery, not resignation.
Lucinda Williams, though temporarily unable to play the guitar, embodies a survivor’s candor. Her voice remains a wellspring of truth, carried by character and the vividly told stories she shares. The album Let’s Get The Band Back Together nods to classic rock eras, echoing influences from the Stones and The Faces as it invites old friends and new collaborators alike. The record celebrates a sense of camaraderie—an atmosphere of shared history with artists such as Margo Price. It’s a tribute to music that captured a younger self around age 12 and a working-class kid in a city that felt defeated. A guitar becomes the conduit for meaning, and the line “you don’t need to be so cunning/you don’t need to be a work of art anymore” speaks to a universal accessibility of emotion. The voices of Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa provide a summing point, while the New York Comeback adds a further layer of resilience to the story.
poetic characters
In Jukebox, Williams longs for the alien tunes of her life, painting them into a poetic character in Song Where the Song Will Find Me. The album conjures two departed friends, Tom Petty in Stolen Moments and Bob Stinson in Hum’s Liquor, weaving a search for the raw edge of rock with mid-tempo grooves. The texture blends acoustic threads with pedal steel, supported by an ensemble that includes heartful percussion from Steve Ferrone, keyboard work from Reese Wynans (a former member of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble), and the late Steve Mackey, bassist from Pulp and Dolly Parton collaborations. The result is a sound that feels lived-in and deeply felt, with every instrument a voice in the narrative.
In a climactic moment, Never Gonna Fade Away confronts depression with a stance of defiance, echoing Neil Young’s sentiment and looping it back into the craft of songwriting. The song becomes a life lesson, a promise that creativity can endure even when personal storms rage.