Jul

3

Lucinda Williams.

Filed Under Music | 3 Comments

Last time The Swell Season came to Western Washington, I missed out. Determined not to repeat, I bought tickets to this year’s No Depression Festival at Marymoor Park, where Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová are closing. But I grew interested in another act at the festival with whom I only had a passing familiarity: Lucinda Williams.

After sampling some of her work through the YouTube and checking out a couple of discs from the local library, I’m impressed by how familiar she sounds. Surprised, really. I’ve never really understood country and western music, what with its predictably irritating song structure and forcibly accented vocals. But somehow Lucinda transcends that for me. Part of the attraction is that she seems to have a similar jaunty fatalism as some of my other favorite female singers. Regina Spektor. Jenny Lewis. Norah Jones. But part of it is she’s got the same sort of assured “I’m a rock star, even though I’m not a rock star” attitude that is exhibited by the likes of John Darnielle or Eleanor Friedberger. Also, although I don’t usually go for bleach blondes, she’s sort of hot…especially when that whiskey-soaked groan is factored in. Looking forward to seeing her next month.


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3 Comments so far

  1. FelixP on July 3, 2010 6:29 pm

    you don’t even like Johnny Cash? what about Patsy Cline?

  2. Chris on July 4, 2010 5:00 pm

    I like Johnny Cash pretty well (although “Ring of Fire” is a Skatallites rip-off, and I find Cash’s version of “Hurt” to be inferior to that of Sad Kermit). But, as country and western music, I don’t understand Cash.

    One thing I don’t understand about country and western music: Nearly everyone, all throughout the world, when they’re singing…the accent disappears. Some bloke from Liverpool or Perth or Bangalore or Johannesburg or Dallas or The Hague can be virtually unintelligible he’s speaking. But when he sings, he “sounds American.” Only he doesn’t really. He sounds unaccented. He sounds the same as everyone else.

    Only with country and western music singers do we find the accent persists. Why is that? I have no idea. But it irritates me.

  3. FelixP on July 6, 2010 7:05 am

    let’s be clear: when you say “the accent disappears” you really mean “with an American accent”. I suspect that’s that key, all these people who sang rock from all over the world were trying to sing like Elvis, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, etc,: folks who sang w/ an American accent. Likewise, one who likes country music sings w/ the accent that its main talents sang with, a southern US accent. And, the accent persists in early Brit-punk and its copiers (such as Green Day).