Aw yeah slaw, Pontiac---great album. But no, Robyn Ludwick is a name new to me, so I’ll add her to my "check out" list.
Speaking of Lucinda, yesterday on the TAS site I read a review of her newish release of This Sweet Old World, her re-recording of the Sweet Old World album, which was released between her s/t Rough Trade album (her first with a band, her first two on Folkways being true solo albums) and her breakthrough Car Wheels On A Gravel Road album. Apparently, Lucinda was never happy with the recordings, and went in to get it right this time.
The review inspired me last night listen to every album of hers I possess (I cooled off on her in the mid-2000’s, a couple of albums---World Without Tears and West---having waaay too many slow songs) in order of release. My appreciation of her singing has been deepened, and my interest in her renewed! How we perceive music---vocals especially---is greatly influenced by our own state of mind, and right now I seem to be in a receptive mood for Lucinda. She’s a "Fall" kind of artist ;-). There are three of her albums I now have to get asap---This Sweet Old World, Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone, and The Ghosts Of Highway 20. As is evident, I haven’t kept up with her new releases after losing interest back in them in the mid-2000’s.
I saw Lucinda live quite a few times in L.A. (from a pizza parlor to The Troubadour), from the time of the Rough Trade album (1988) through the Car Wheels tour (late 90’s). Most of those times she had her original L.A. band, with David Lindley on drums and her then-producer Gurf Morlix on guitar. The recording of the Rough Trade album, Sweet Old World, and Car Wheels were painful affairs, Lucinda having a very hard time getting on tape the sound she was after. Sweet Old World was recorded three times, over four years! The Car Wheels album also took a few years, it’s release date pushed back time after time.
Producer Morlix grew weary of the whole thing during the recording of the Car Wheels album, quit her band, and moved to Austin, where he remains. Drummer Lindley died, and Lucinda has been through many drummers and guitarists since. On the Car Wheels tour she had Kenny Vaughan, now in The Fabulous Superlatives, Marty Stuart’s band, playing guitar. Listening last night to the later Essence and Little Honey albums, and having heard snippets of The Ghosts Of Highway 20 albums, I believe she has been able to get what she was after in the early days (hence the new recording of the Sweet Old World album)---a more rural, "roadhouse" band sound, less pop. The snare drum on her albums is now lower in the mix, and tuned lower. Gurf’s Telecaster twang has been replaced by the snarl of what sounds like a Les Paul Jr., and it suits her music and voice better. I’m diggin’ Lucindy again!
