Lucinda Williams She no longer has anything to prove, at seventy years old she is one of the most important names of what became known as American, although she is clear that her heart belongs to rock & roll. Her sixteenth album, “Stories From A Rock & Roll Heart”, is an ode to the genre that first made him pick up an electric guitar. A rock & roll record about the life of rock & roll, with its ups and downs, its revelations and its silliness, a record about a genre that used to save lives and, thanks to works like this, simply refuses to be seen. like a relic of the past.
Lucinda’s voice sounds faded and worn, the aftermath of the stroke has not fully passed, but it sounds passionate and perfect in its imperfection, the record begins with a declaration of intent, Lucinda wants to get the band back together and go on tour, musically it returns to the main roots: the “Chuck Berry Fields Forever” from which entire genres have emerged, the guitarists play at being the Stones, the organist manages to make his instrument smoke and Lucinda puts Dylan and Springsteen at full volume. And as if by magic, the “Boss” is present in the second song, another great song in which the author of “Born To Run” lHe gives some heartfelt choruses to Lucinda while she dreams of her great return to New York, in another great song that rounds off one of the most rocky beginnings of the career of Williams.
But this would not be a record of Lucinda Williams if she didn’t ever break our hearts, that’s what she does with “Last Call For The Truth”. Give me one more song to sing out loud, give me a little glimpse of my lost youth and I hope you stay forever young. “Jukebox” It’s the first acoustic track on the album, another beauty in which Lucinda goes to cure her loneliness at her favorite bar while Patsy Cline and Muddy Waters play on the jukebox.
But the volume turns up with “Stolen Moments”, a theme that sounds like the most epic Springsteen, especially in a chorus of those to sing out loud, again there is a great job by a luxury band, with great work on slide guitar. “Rock & Roll Heart” is, although it sounds obvious, the heart of the album, this is the song about the call of rock & roll, that moment when you heard something that changed your life and decided that there was nothing else you wanted to do. You don’t have to be very smart, but if the music resonates with you, it is a call that cannot be refused. Despite being sung by two stars like Lucinda Williams and Bruce Springsteen, seems dedicated to all those who got the call but didn’t make it.
“This Is Not Muy Town” is a sharp sample of rockabilly and blues rock, with a liberating chorus. Then “Hum’s Liquor” is a look at the B-side of rock & roll life, at those who end up destroyed by it, like Bob Stinson from the Replacements, going to the liquor store every morning to continue drinking all their demons.
In “Where The Song Will Find Me” Lucinda talks about when inspiration and songs come to her. As she herself says, you don’t have to worry too much about her, her songs always end up finding her. And the album concludes her with her thesis, “Never Gonna Fade Away”Lucinda is old and tired but she does not plan to fade away, when you have received the call it is until the end, it is not necessary to die young and leave a beautiful corpse, an indomitable spirit can be maintained until the end, and that is something that has Lucinda Williams who, at seventy years old and with many injuries to his body and heart, has one thing clear: “hey, hey, rock & roll can’t die.” Not while there are people willing to follow the call with their boots on to the end.