Tostadosunidos---It was in the mid-to-late 80’s I saw Lucinda playing around L.A. She’s lived there off and on over the years. I was introduced to her at Club Lingerie by the manager of The Long Ryders, whom I was there to see and hear. Their drummer Greg Sowders was her boyfriend (later her husband, briefly----she has been married quite a few times). When he told me she was a songwriter, she looked sheepish---embarrassed even, averting her eyes to the floor. I was mesmerized by her humility, a rare sight in L.A. For the show at the pizza parlor (which had a tiny stage---a riser, really) she had her drummer Donald Lindley (R.I.P.) playing washboard, her bassist Dr. John (not THE Dr, John---this guy was a real doctor!) on upright, an accordionist, and Gurf on his trademark Telecaster. She was great, the songs were great, and the band was great.
The Rough Trade album, released in ’88, was her third, but the first with a band---Gurf, Dr. John, and Donald. Lucinda’s first two albums were her doing traditional folk/blues, unaccompanied, on the Folkways label. How she performed live earlier in Austin and Houston I have no idea. But it was in L.A. she put together her original band, with whom she made her first album with accompaniment.
Lucinda is far from a showbiz entertainer, being very introverted (my kinda gal). She debuted her CWOAGR album at The Troubadour, and after starting to sing one particular song, looked around confused and stopped her band. She told the audience she had been playing in the wrong key, and started it over. She had a music stand in front of her, with a three-ring notebook on it. Inside were pages (each inside a plastic page-protector) containing the lyrics and chords to all the songs she was going to sing that night, in order of performance. As the final chords of one song died out, she turned to the next page. She looked down at the page, positioned her fingers to play the opening chord of the song, then turned to the band and counted off the beginning. That’s one way to do it!
