Singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams is truly one of a kind, mixing a range of sweet, bluesy and rockin’ jams across a long and historic career. Her legendary album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is a work of alt-country art. Enjoy an evening of her stinging yet soothing country tales and tunes on Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno. For tickets and more information, visit www.caesars.com/silver-legacy-reno. (This feature normally includes 13 questions, and it is the one RN&R feature we normally do via email. However, Williams’ PR team asked us to do the Q&A via the phone—and I forgot to ask one of the questions. As a result, welcome to the first, and hopefully last, Lucky 12.)
What was the first concert you attended?
One of the first ones I know would have been Peter, Paul and Mary, when I was living with my family in New Orleans, and I think they were playing at Loyola University.
What was the first album you owned?
It probably would have been one of the Beatles albums, like Beatles ’65 or Meet the Beatles.
What bands are you listening to right now?
It depends on the mood I’m in and everything. I’m still listening to some of the same people I was listening to 30 years ago, like Neil Young and Bob Dylan. Occasionally I stumble across a new artist who I really like, and there’s a guy named Steve Gunn I’m really into. He’s based in New York, and I’m just really digging his album right now. There’s a girl named Sharon Van Etten who I think is a really, really good singer/songwriter, and when I just want to show out and groove and stuff, I love to listen to Thievery Corporation.
What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?
I have seen them live before, but they don’t perform that often, so the Thievery Corporation, or The Pretenders. They’re still really going strong. I just saw them recently at a little club in Nashville, and they were great. The sound was great, and her performance was great. Chrissie (Hynde) was singing her ass off.
What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?
Not a guilty pleasure, but I know what people mean when they say that, so I guess I would have to say the Carpenters. Occasionally I listen to Frank Sinatra, and I love some of the Tony Bennett stuff, because I love those vocals from that style and from that era. It’s great, but I don’t feel like I have to hide it from my friends. When I was a kid, I liked being weird. I wanted people to think I was weird, so the weirder, the better.
What’s your favorite music venue?
I really like First Avenue in Minneapolis. I love the people who run it, the people who work there. It’s a fun place to play. I like the town a lot, and they have everybody’s names who’s ever played there written on the side of the building. It’s been around for a long time. They’ve kept it going somehow for all these years, and the history of who’s played there is really interesting.
What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?
This song that came on the radio one day recently, and it just got stuck in my head: “We’re still having fun, and you’re still the one … still the one who makes me laugh, still the one, we’re still having fun.” (Orleans, “Still the One”).
What band or artist changed your life? How?
Probably Bob Dylan. When I heard Highway 61 Revisited, it just blew my mind. I was only 12 years old, but somehow, something in me connected, and I just remember getting obsessed over that record, listening to it all the time, every day. I went back and discovered his other albums that I hadn’t heard yet, and I just became a Dylan fanatic. I was pretty obsessed with Bob Dylan back in the day, because I was just starting to play guitar and sing, and learning songs and eventually writing songs. He was a huge inspiration and influence on my songwriting.
You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking?
Leonard Cohen: Explain “Hallelujah” to me.
What song would you like played at your funeral?
“Amazing Grace,” or anything by Mahalia Jackson. She’s got some pretty great gospel-type stuff that she recorded, and maybe this Mississippi Fred McDowell song “Just a Little More Faith.”
Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?
I was going to say Highway 61, but I’ve already given that one so much attention. Blonde on Blonde (Bob Dylan). That’s one of those that the whole record is great. At one point, Rubber Soul (Beatles) was my favorite album. Neil Young, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, is another one I used to listen to all the time.
What song should everyone listen to right now?
“Hallelujah.” It’s such a heavy, intense, incredibly gorgeous song.