Lucinda Williams- Stories From A Rock N Roll Heart
Label: Thirty Tigers
Producers: Lucinda Williams, Ray Kennedy, Tom Overby
If there was any fool out there doubting the resiliency of Lucinda Williams, her fifteenth studio album should swiftly have them tucking their tail between their legs. In the wake of a debilitating stroke suffered in 2020, Williams launches her seventies by releasing one of the most energetically potent records of her storied career, and what will reign as one of the very best rock albums of 2023. Her unabashedly rock & roll heart and spirit have always been as definitive to Williams’ artistic identity as has been her groundbreaking alt-country vision and legendarily poetic songwriting, and it gets a rewarding, full-throttled showcase on Stories From A Rock N’ Roll Heart. The opening one-two punch of “Let’s Get the Band Back Together” and lead single, “New York Comeback” (featuring fantastic harmonies from Bruce Springsteen & Patti Scialfa) immediately provides the album with a fulfilling dose of classic rock & roll staples such as camaraderie and underdog triumph. This surging Heartland Rock anthemia carries through further highlights like quasi-title track, “Rock n’ Roll Heart”, where the backing band sounds positively sizzling and Williams once again proves herself as commanding a stage leader as anyone working the scene today. These moments provide as much unadulterated fun as you’ll likely hear on a Lucinda album, while still maintaining the same succinct storytelling nature that beats at the heart of both her own work and the rock canon in general. With that said, this is a Lucinda Williams record, and there’s plenty of more stoic and pensive material to be found throughout as well. But once again, it’s these diverse and dramatic thematic flavors that allow the album to fully encapsulate the depth of the true rock & roll experience. Moments like “Last Call for the Truth”, “Hum’s Liquor”, and “Never Gonna Fade Away” soulfully capture the bittersweet nostalgia and longstanding memories that define the emotions of any aging adult, rock star or otherwise. Meanwhile, “Jukebox” reveals itself as one of her greatest pure country performances, with both her warbly, mournful twang and her classic lyrical imagery conjuring up the loneliest aspects of the honky tonk and rock joint lifestyles. With the pointed “This Is Not My Town”, she does briefly revisit the overly political nature of her more recent work, and while she does so as movingly and intelligently as ever, it’s somewhat of a relief to hear her keep those stories to the minimum, at least for the time being. Stories more-so just finds Lucinda Williams allowing herself to once again rip our hearts out and get our adrenaline fueling in one fell swoop, as she has done on all of the very best moments of her epic catalog. Both Nashville and Cleveland should take serious note: they’re way past due to punch Lucinda Williams’ tickets into each of their respective halls, and this record is just further supporting evidence of this fact.
Track Listing:
- “Let’s Get the Band Back Together” (Lucinda Wlliams, Tom Overby, Jesse Malin)
- “New York Comeback” with Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa (Williams, Overby, Malin)
- “Last Call for the Truth” (Williams, Overby, Travis Stephens)
- “Jukebox” (Williams, Overby, Malin, Stephens)
- “Stolen Moments” (Williams, Overby)
- “Rock n Roll Heart” (Williams, Overby, Stephens)
- “This Is Not My Town” (Williams, Overby, Stephens)
- “Hum’s Liquor” (Williams, Overby, Stephens)
- “When the Song Will Find Me” (Williams, Overby, Stephens)
- “Never Gonna Fade Away” (Williams, Overby)
The 706 
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