@slaw, thanks for the report on the new version. And thanks to you, reubent and all other Lucinda fans for getting me back into her. I loved her from the first time I heard her s/t Rough Trade album in 1988 (damn, 30 years ago!), through Sweet Old World, and into her breakout album, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. I would go see and hear her every time she played live in SoCal, and considered her one of my very favorite singer/songwriters, sort of my female John Hiatt.
But her next two albums, Essence and World Without Tears, didn't grab me. I listened to little snippets of each song on both albums, and was put off by the slow, undynamic nature of the performances. As I often do in situations like this, I essentially wrote her off, considering her no longer of interest to me. I therefore didn't even look into her subsequent albums.
Geez did I miss some fantastic music! Ya'll inspired me to catch up with what she has been doing, and to give Essence and World Without Tears another chance. And I am deeply, madly in love with her again. I started with those two albums, and now can't believe their worth escaped me at the time of their release. I have been listening to nothing but Lucinda for the past month, loving every album she has made since Car Wheels.
Right now I'm on Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone, and am absolutely flabbergasted by what a great singer she has become. I haven't gotten to the new version of SOW yet, her singing on it getting pretty harsh criticism from some. I do hear the lack of articulation and enunciation in her current singing that some listeners don't care for, but I find myself loving it. She now sounds like the Country Blues singer she has always wanted to be.
Her writing too has grown deeper. Lyrics aren't necessarily important to me; when they're great, it's a nice bonus. Lucinda's are now really interesting, and her delivery of them absolutely thrilling. Her musicians are creating a thick, swampy stew of sound, about as "rural" as I've ever heard. The deep groove her players create seems to be allowing Lu to really let go, to bring things up from way down inside. I am SO happy for her---she has achieved greatness.