Coo-er-gosh but she's good. Just stunning. She's got a voice like Scarlet O'Hara on 50-a-day, she played the hell out of her guitar, and sang the hell out of her songs... She was, as her support act said, a kick-ass chick.

It was quite late by the time she came on, and I was getting kinda bored, having been there for three hours already - but I was completely blown away from the very first song. She played some that were familiar to me (I've got three of her albums), a few new ones, and some that the crowd knew but I hadn't heard before. I found it really easy to like the unfamiliar ones straight off - particularly one called 'Passionate Kisses'.

I guess her brand of harsh poetry appeals to me in part because I was brought up on Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, and recently went through a big phase of listening to all the Emmylou Harris I could get my hands on. She's very much in that style - not sticking to any one genre in particular. She said she couldn't get signed in the 80s 'cause she was "too country for rock, and too rock for country." The labelling of music - or of any art form - has always somewhat baffled me. How do you say that one artist is definitively "rock", or "folk", or whatever? And why should they stick to that? I'd rather someone followed their muse, and played what they were inspired to write.

So, me liked. Only downside was the T-shirt I bought, which appears to have been printed back-to-front - the picture is on the back, and the words 'Lucinda Williams' on the front. It looks like that's my name or something, when I wear it. Ah well, it gave my bf a good laugh. :)