Elvis/Lucinda Williams Jailhouse Tears

[martinfoyle]

http://www.lucindawilliams.com/forum.html

Elvis Costello joins Lu on stage in NYC!
posted by keithb on 7/15/2005 1:03:34 AM
It's a good night when you get to meet Elvis Costello in the lobby of the Beacon Theater. He came out and played Changed the Locks with Lu and the boys about two-thirds through the main set, and also sang Lu's kick-ass new song Jailhouse Tears (which was written as a duet) with her during the all-too-short encore. Lucinda was in great spirits all night despite the venue's 11:00 curfew, which really bummed her out when I saw her at the Beacon last year, and she and the band turned in an excellent show that ran a little over an hour and a half and featured six or seven new songs.

[Who Shot Sam?]

http://www.lucindawilliams.com/forum.html

Elvis Costello joins Lu on stage in NYC!
posted by keithb on 7/15/2005 1:03:34 AM
It's a good night when you get to meet Elvis Costello in the lobby of the Beacon Theater. He came out and played Changed the Locks with Lu and the boys about two-thirds through the main set, and also sang Lu's kick-ass new song Jailhouse Tears (which was written as a duet) with her during the all-too-short encore. Lucinda was in great spirits all night despite the venue's 11:00 curfew, which really bummed her out when I saw her at the Beacon last year, and she and the band turned in an excellent show that ran a little over an hour and a half and featured six or seven new songs.

I hate that curfew at the Beacon. Next time EC's in town, he should consider doing away with an opening act if he plays the Beacon - he does these 2 hours+ sets everywhere else, then is forced to play a much shorter set in New York. It always a great night of music, but I would almost prefer to see him anywhere else than at the Beacon. How about a set at the Bowery Ballroom next time, Elvis? I know it won't bring a huge crowd, but that's a great setting for live music. Lucinda Williams played there last year.

[mood swung]

Lucinda is playing in Knoxville next month. I guess it's too much to hope for a surprise EC appearance. But hope, in vain, I will....nothing wrong with hoping. world needs more hope, imo. It will be fabulous to see Lucinda, anyways. Gilli, please come with me!

[El Vez]

Shatterproof,

Wow, it sounds like your sister lucked into a really special show. Elvis & Lu's Crossroads duet on "Changed The Locks" was actually what really started the ball rolling for me to pay more attention to Costello in the first place. Just going by the title alone, "Jailhouse Tears" sounds like a knockout.

Mood,

Have you seen Lucinda in concert before? I was fortunate enough to catch her w/ The Jayhawks a couple of years ago and it was one of the best shows I have ever witnessed. When she's on, she's magic.

[mood swung]

this will be my first Lucinda show, El Vez. I am looking forward to it.

A LOT!!!

[johnfoyle]

http://www.very-simple.com/iblog/C17438 ... index.html

The reason I was actually up in my new 'hood tonight was because I had tickets with friends to see Lucinda Williams at the Beacon Theater. Which was awesome, because she's always awesome. This is the third summer in a row that we've seen her play (last year also at the Beacon and the summer before that in Central Park). I love her so much that I even bought her Live at the Fillmore CD when it came out, ignoring the fact that I already own the original albums with almost all of the songs already.

Tonight she actually played a bunch of new stuff (she tests out new songs on her audience), and for the most part it was pretty great. But the best part of the show? Was when she said that she had an old friend backstage that she was going to ask to come out and help her sing a song...



...and it was Elvis Costello. People in the audience kind of went nuts at that point. They were great together, and it was just such a great little surprise.

[stormwarning]

What's the point of me moving to NY if I'm going to miss events like this ???? The Changed the Locks duet from the CMT Crossroads show is a big, big favourite of mine...

[martinfoyle]

Fret no more Storm, the show is being torrented here.

[martinfoyle]

....and here are mp3s of the 2 tracks, enjoy.

http://s50.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1CQN ... OG3LYWJWY8

http://s50.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3R6G ... 6KMQ9PHKK6

[stormwarning]

You sir, are a gentleman.
thank you.

[johnfoyle]

Lucinda has just cancelled her forthcoming European dates , due to an 'ear infection'..................or is it the good old Costello Curse yet again.

Presumably this 'infection' developed since her show last Thursday in New York. Hopefully it isn't a sign of a repeat of what happened in late 2001. All of a sudden a lot of U.S. acts just didn't want to come to Europe after 9/11. To be fair , some of them had insurance difficulties etc.

Whatever . Laura Cantrell , Lucinda's support for the tour , is travelling , going ahead with stand-alone shows in Birmingham and York of July 24/25th.

http://www.lauracantrell.com/gigs.asp

[charliestumpy]

Thanks.

[scielle]

BANKING ON A COUNTRY HIT
Jia Lynn Yang
25 July 2005
Fortune

Laura Cantrell once had a 9-to-5 job like the rest of us, punching the clock every day as a vice president of equity research at Bank of America. And now? She's a full-blown country chanteuse with a new record out on the hip label Matador. Humming by the Flowered Vine is Cantrell's third album--it's as delicately gorgeous as her first two--and this time she won't have to use up all her vacation days to go on tour. So does Cantrell miss anything about her former life? "I got the chance to walk into my boss's office and say, 'I'm going on tour with Elvis Costello,' " she says, "and see the reaction on her face." -- Jia Lynn Yang

[johnfoyle]

Tipped here -

http://www.pastemagazine.com/high_gravi ... tryro.html


http://getmusic.com.au/me/pub/c/2138676 ... wsId=26913

Lucinda Williams new album 'Little Honey' to be released by Lost Highway on October 11

21 Jul 2008

THREE-TIME GRAMMY-WINNER'S NINTH STUDIO ALBUM FEATURES

MOST DIVERSE COLLECTION OF SONGS TO DATE


Lost Highway will release Little Honey, the new album from three-time Grammy Award-winner Lucinda Williams on October 11. Little Honey is Williams' ninth studio album and easily her most eclectic in a recording career that began in 1978.


After 30+ years of writing, performing and recording, Williams is in the middle of her most prolific period to date. In February of 2007, Williams released the Grammy-nominated and critically acclaimed West. Just over a year later Williams returns with new sounds, familiar styles, new friends, renewed optimism and thought-provoking sentiment on Little Honey.

The 13-songs on Little Honey showcase all of the elements that have made Williams one of the most celebrated living songwriters. She revives the spirit of the delta on "Heaven Blues", emanates beauty and heartache on "The Knowing", duets with Elvis Costello on the classic mini-drama "Jailhouse Tears", sings poetry atop subtle horns on the epic "Rarity", and exudes the country blues on "Circles And X's", which she wrote in 1985. Williams dives deeper into her rock roots than ever on tracks such as the album's opener "Real Love", the intense, raw power of "Honey Bee" and the grand crescendos of "Little Rock Star", where she draws on her personal wisdom from experience in a sincere letter to younger artists who walk the fine line between success and self-destruction.



Little Honey was produced by Eric Liljestrand, who engineered Williams' West, and Tom Overby. Along with Costello, Little Honey features guest vocals by Matthew Sweet, Suzanna Hoffs, Jim Lauderdale, Tim Easton and the legendary Charlie Louvin. Williams is backed by her solid road band Buick 6, which includes mainstay Doug Pettibone on guitar, with David Sutton (bass) and former Eels' members Chet Lyster (guitar) and Butch Norton (drums). Keyboardist Rob Burger, who also played on West returns for the Little Honey sessions.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/i ... her-blues/



Photo by Sam Comen
In the Studio: Lucinda Williams Cures Her Blues

8/13/08, 12:08 pm EST



“Whatever record I’m doing reflects my life,” says Lucinda Williams with a smile, sitting in Los Angeles’ Village Recorder studios. And guessing from the sound of the singer-songwriter’s ninth album, Little Honey, an upbeat disc of bluesy rockers and contented love songs, Williams is feeling pretty good these days.

The sunny vibe clearly comes through in the rowdy arrangements on the 13-track set — co-produced by Eric Liljestrand and Williams’ manager-fiance, Tom Overby — which bring the lively playing of guitar ace Doug Pettibone and her road band, the Buick 6, to the forefront.

Though Little Honey sounds strikingly different from 2007’s downcast West, the majority of the songs were originally written for that album. And some of the material goes back even further. The ballad “Circles and Xs” dates to 1985; “Well, Well, Well” is from the demos for 1992’s Sweet Old World and is revived here with bluegrass singers Jim Lauderdale and Charlie Louvin. Other guests include Elvis Costello, who plays the part of a drunken degenerate on “Jailhouse Tears”; and Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs add harmonies to the trippy, six-minute “Little Rock Star,” inspired by seeing Pete Doherty in Rolling Stone. “It’s an empathetic look at self-indulgent, little-brat rock stars,” she says. “He’s great, and you want to say, ‘Snap out of it!’ ”

To close the set, Williams covers AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll).” “At first, I didn’t dig it,” she says. “But I gave it a shot. And what do you know? It seems to have worked!”



[From Issue 1059 — August 21, 2008]

[mood swung]

I read that yesterday, thought about posting it, realized the Fab Foyles would have it covered, so I watched Goal! on tv instead.


I am looking forward to that one. West was kind of ... somber. I am tired of somber.

[johnfoyle]

Hear Elvis 'n Lucinda here-

http://www.losthighwayrecords.com/lucin ... ams/amazon

Sing along -

Chorus:

She: I’m crying, jailhouse tears
and I’ve been trying all these years
Been trying to ride things out
but now I’m shifting gears
and we’re both crying jailhouse tears


He: They say I broke the law
now everything is broken down
She: babe I know what I saw
I know you went downtown.
He: I went to the corner
to get a cold six pack
She: You’re a drunk you’re a stoner
you never came back.

He: They locked me up
and you locked me out
She: You tried to steal my truck, but
That’s not what this is about
He: I used to be a user
but now I’m all out of stuff
She: You’re a 3 time loser
you’re all fucked up

Chorus: He and She together

I’m crying, jailhouse tears
and I’ve been trying all these years
Been trying to ride things out
but now I’m shifting gears
and we’re both crying jailhouse tears

He: I’ll prove it to you somehow
I’m done with every bit
look at me, I’m clean now
She: you’re so full of shit
He: I swear I will tell all
look in my dresser drawers

She: Now I’m behind the 8-ball
you’re behind bars.


Chorus (he and she together) X 2

[johnfoyle]

http://lateshow.cbs.com/latenight/lates ... nfo/pants/

Thursday, October 2
Calista Flockhart (Brothers & Sisters)
Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live)
Lucinda Williams (CD, "Little Honey")

This blog states-

http://rock-pop-country-folk.blogspot.c ... liams.html

Williams, who releases a new CD, "Little Honey," next week, will play Jailhouse Tears, a duet with Elvis Costello.

[johnfoyle]

Last night Vern posted to listserv -

As I type Lucinda Williams and band are performing the song "Real Love" on
Late Night, not "Jailhouse Tears." No Elvis.

[johnfoyle]

The edition of the CD on sale here in Dublin has a extra track - a 'early version' of Jailhouse Tears , with no vocals by Elvis. It's way better than the duet take. Otherwise the album is pleasant enough stuff. ' Honey Bee' is very good, just as when she did an early performance of it here late last year. Beastly as it is to state, Ms Williams is more challenging when she is all messed up in 'real life'. She's , apparently, all lovey-dovey at the moment , hence the mellow tone of this album.

[johnfoyle]

http://uncut.co.uk/music/lucinda_williams/reviews/12261

Uncut, Nov. '08


LITTLE HONEY Lucinda Williams (Lost Highway) 4 stars

Nine albums in, the queen of heartbreak tempts fate by cheering up



Short of having one’s favourite guitar stolen, it is difficult to imagine what greater misfortune could strike the country singer than falling happily, healthily and eternally in love. The lifeblood of the genre is that which drips from broken hearts; country is essentially music of consolation, not celebration.

Such, however, would appear to be the calamity that has struck Lucinda Williams at some point during the writing of this, the ninth studio album of a career which now stretches back three decades (the lucky fellow is her manager Tom Overby, also credited as co-producer). Several cuts on “Little Honey” are unabashedly thrilled, veritably gushing, bracingly naïve encomiums to the trueness of Cupid’s aim: coming from Williams, who has well earned a reputation as a provider of apposite soundtracks for romantic anguish, it’s almost as disorienting as discovering that the new Richard Curtis film is to be an adaptation of “Oedipus Rex”.

The tone is set, not unreasonably, by the opening track. “Real Love” is breathless, excited, verging on gauche (“You’re drinking in a bar in Amsterdam/I’m thinking baby far out, be my man”), an instant contrast with the bulk of Williams’ oeuvre, in which she has generally sounded bereft and self-reproachful. This punchy rocker also serves the purpose of introducing the band she has corralled for “Little Honey”, a formidable lineup including longtime Eels collaborators Chet Lyster (guitars) and Butch Norton (drums), Doug Pettibone (guitars), Matthew Sweet (backing vocals) and Susanna Hoffs (backing vocals): other tracks on “Little Honey” are graced by Elvis Costello, Jim Lauderdale and Charlie Louvin.

Fortunately, Williams knows enough to grasp two crucial considerations: that a little of other people’s unfettered happiness goes a very long way indeed, and that at any rate it’s not really what we pay her for. The rest of “Little Honey” either revisits Williams’ familiar palette of defeat and disappointment – or at least, when it doesn’t, reflects backwards from her presently elevated position over the testing, punishing ascent to the peak.

The bluesy torch tunes “Tears Of Joy” and “The Knowing” both manage the neat trick of appreciating the present by mourning the difficulties of the past, and the gorgeous solo acoustic ballad “Plan To Marry” dares to revel in the idea of love as a bulwark against the disappointments and disasters which have hitherto informed a lot more of Williams’ writing. It’s telling that the only outright dud on the album is its least ambiguous track: “Honey Bee”, a lubricious pledge of devotion queasily comparable to overhearing cooing honeymooners in the next seat along the aircraft.

As ever where Williams is concerned, however, it’s all about the voice. That husky, sardonic rasp sounded heroically weatherbeaten when Williams first attained wide recognition with 1988’s “Passionate Kisses” (later an anodyne pop hit for Mary Chapin Carpenter), and has only acquired further depths since. It’s heard at its best here on “Well Well Well”, an old-school country blues pleasingly evocative of what might have resulted had Iris DeMent been born early enough to record at Sun Studios – the presence of the great Charlie Louvin on backing vocals contributes to the period vibe – and on “Jailhouse Tears”, a double-hander with Elvis Costello in which they play off each other winningly as an incarcerated felon and his long-suffering missus: it’s an heir to the rancorous dialogues of George Jones and Tammy Wynette, or Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn, that also manages to suggest something of the tone of Shane MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl on “Fairytale Of New York”.

The clear highlight, though – conceivably of Williams’ career to date, and not just of “Little Honey” – is the exquisite “Wishes Were Horses”. That this wondrously lachrymose lament has, apparently, languished un-recorded for more than 20 years is an outrage ameliorated only by the quality of what Williams has committed to tape in that period.

“Little Honey” is a heartening and humble album, sufficiently smart and aware to be an expression of thanks for the journey as well as the destination. In context, the AC/DC cover which closes proceedings seems less like a tossed-off rehearsal-room tear-up than it otherwise might: as Williams has clearly learnt the hard way, rock’n’roll is not the only realm of endeavour in which it is a long way to the top.

ANDREW MUELLER


LUCINDA WILLIAMS Q&A:

UNCUT: This is a more cheerful album than you’re known for. . .
“I was thinking that. Some of the songs were left over from [2007’s] ‘West’, but in the meantime I’d gotten inspired – I’d been out on the road, and I was in a different place emotionally.”

You’ve some stellar backing vocalists here.
“I didn’t know Matthew Sweet or Susanna Hoffs. Tom [Overby, co-producer andfiance] came up with the idea of Matthew, and Matthew brought Susanna. He did these amazing arrangements, and she sounded like an angel. I usually don’t know what I’m doing until I get to the studio. Matthew is like the Brian Wilson of today, he’s a genius.”

Is it intimidating having someone like Charlie Louvin in the studio?
“No. We took Charlie on tour with his band, and it was a great experience.
He’s 81, and a total punk rocker, and funny as hell. He’s showing me how
cool 81 can be.”

And how does a country singer end up covering AC/DC?
“That was Tom’s idea. He thought the album needed an out and out rocker, and I find those hard to write. I didn’t even know the song, but Tom got us to try it. I came in at the end of the day, when the band had been rehearsing it, and I was a little resistant, but I drank some wine and gave it a try. We end with it every night now, and people go nuts.”

[invisible Pole]

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/643 ... tle-honey/

[...]
"Unfortunately, however, Little Honey suffers from its share of missteps, which is a shame since Williams could have easily cut three tracks and still had enough songs to form a tighter, more consistent album. Oddly enough, the duet with Elvis Costello, “Jailhouse Tears”, should not have made the cut. Costello is brilliant in many different genres, but his effete, nasal, British whine has never made for convincing country. Yes, if you’re a hipster working backwards from indie rock to country, you might like Costello’s faux-twang, but the track is downright tedious. Lacking in both punch and locomotion, it also recycles every overused motif in country music, from breaking the law to being a drunk to being a “three-time loser”.
[...]

by Michael Franco
PopMatters Associate Music Editor

[johnfoyle]

http://www.theaquarian.com/aq/2009/03/0 ... implicity/

The Aquarian Weekly


Lucinda Williams

March 6, 2009

by James Campion

(extract)

How did your duet with Elvis Costello on ‘Jailhouse Tears’ come about?

Well, he was one of the people we were thinking of and we had a list of people and we weren’t sure we were going to get Elvis because of his schedule and everything, but it just so happened that he was in town working on something for his own record, so we were able to grab him. We had to hook up with him around 11:00 p.m. on a Saturday night. So we literally just—we had the track cut already—and we just ran in and hooked up with Elvis and he and I did the vocals together. It was real, (chuckles) very spontaneous.

It reminds me so much of a classic country duet like Johnny Cash and June Carter on ‘Jackson.’

That’s kind of what it’s supposed to be, yeah.

I was turned onto Elvis, like most people who love him, in the late ‘70s, but my favorite record of his is King Of America from 1986, which has this carefree, country, Americana feel that I always thought was reflected in your best work. I’m not sure if you’re a fan of that record and that’s what brought you to Elvis for this duet, but it’s weird how that all came together in the song.

No, I was…I am! That’s funny you said that, because Elvis asked me several years ago to do one of those Crossroads shows (CMT Network) with him. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen one of those, they’ve quit doing them, but they would have two different artists on, and they’d have them sing songs together and talk. So I had to learn a couple of his songs, and the song I did as a duet with him on the show was ‘Poisoned Rose.’

Oh, gorgeous song. I would have loved to see that.

I know. I love that. Of course I was armed with all of his albums when I was getting ready, and I thought that album had songs on there that were a little bit different from some of his other ones. But that was the one song that really stood out. I hadn’t heard him do it before. I thought it was really unusual.

Elvis asked me several years ago to do one of those Crossroads shows (CMT Network) with him

Some of this show, recorded Nov. 01 , is on youTube -



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFxvrRJ9i3I

Elvis Costello & Lucinda Williams - Indoor Fireworks


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM2xXesH ... re=related

LUCINDA WILLIAMS & ELVIS COSTELLO-I CHANGED THE LOCKS

[johnfoyle]

Interesting interview with Lucinda -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-rago ... 98695.html

(extract)

MR: Why wouldn't they? You have acres of integrity, and you're well-respected by fans, the press, and among your peers who are all over your records. Paste Magazine's Josh Jackson declared your duet with Elvis Costello "Jailhouse Tears" to be the fifth best country-rock duet of all time.

LW: Really? Yeah, there's a real sense of camaraderie. It's been really cool for me to finally feel like I've gained the respect, admiration, and friendship of these artists who influenced me, like Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, and Emmylou Harris.

[sweetest punch]

Blue: https://youtu.be/eGTY-ntoaJc