Lucinda Williams is still celebrating her latest album “Blessed.”
And why not? The three-time Grammy Award winner who has been showered with accolades for her songwriting (“Passionate Kisses,” “Crescent City”) has also found happiness in her personal life with her marriage to music industry executive Tom Overby. The daughter of much-revered poet Miller Williams, the singer has credited her marriage with some of her most prolific writing in decades.
“Now that I’m in a satisfying relationship, and it’s the one I’ve been looking for my entire adult life, I can branch out and look at all of what I want to write,” she said. “I love this freedom of not being burdened with the same subject, unrequited love, over and over again.”
Her fans clearly love the new additions to her catalog, too. Concerts on this recent tour — which is coming through many cities for a second time — are selling out quickly despite the summertime glut of festivals. And Williams is mixing up her set along the way, moving back to her earliest recording to give audiences a taste of her full musical arsenal.
| Onstage |
| Lucinda Williams Featuring Doug Pettibone |
| When: 7:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday |
| Where: Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria |
| Info: $49.50; ticketmaster.com; 202-397-SEAT |
“Fortunately, Williams proves a master at delivering unadulterated news of life’s heavy blows with no safety nets attached,” wrote Rudy Mesicek of The Salt Lake Tribune about a recent concert. “Case in point is the poignant ‘Little Rock Star.’ Inspired by the life of Amy Winehouse — but written before she died — it rang through the air with all the power of an eerily confirmed premonition. Its rain dance drum beat pounding out a rhythm of regret.”
Although she’s happily married now, Williams can still summon the vocal and instrumental venom needed to make her love-gone-wrong anthems sting like razor blade cuts and sound as fresh as they did when they were just released.
Perhaps that’s because Williams is an example of not just a life well lived but one in which she feels “Blessed,” whether it’s because she survived heartache, collaborated with incredible artists including Willie Nelson and Bruce Springsteen, or found fans waiting to chat after a show.
“I’ve always had good instincts,” said Williams, whose Grammy nomination count is more than a dozen with the latest in 2011 for Best Americana Album for “Blessed.” “Even though I’ve been hard headed in the past, it’s served me well. If I had done things differently, maybe I would have been as well known as Sheryl Crow. You don’t know, though, if anyone has it all.”
