Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams was REALLY looking forward to this concert. Not so much because she enjoys getting to Towson whenever she can, but rather because after 18 months on the road, this was to be the FINAL performance. It was this, then back home to Austin for a well-deserved rest.

You might think that after a year and a half of living out of a suitcase and riding a bus most every day, you might think that she and her band would be just so anxious to get through this concert and call it a season. But no. Just the opposite. It was as if they never wanted to get off the stage. A one-hour show with three encores that stretched it out to two full hours. And they were great.

She sang just about every song she's recorded: Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Drunken Angel, Concrete and Barbed Wire, Lake Charles, Can't Let Go, I Lost It, Metal Firecracker, Greenville, Six Blocks Away, Something About What Happens When We Talk, He Never Got Enough Love, Pineola, Lines Around Your Eyes, I Lost It, Big Red Sun Blues, I Changed the Locks on My Door, Passionate Kisses, Am I Too Blue, Crescent City, Happy Woman Blues. Many others.

But the highlight of the show was the second encore during which they performed Joy. In addition to Lucinda, there were a drummer, a bass player and two guitarists. and these guys were sooo... good. During Joy, the two guitarists got to trading licks, each one more unbelievable than the previous. By the time they ended the song (about 20 minutes after they began), the crowd was in an absolute frenzy. What made the whole situation even more unbelievable, was that both of these guys looked like they held down daytime jobs at Microsoft. Both unashamedly nerdy looking, they nevertheless held complete mastery over their instruments.

Lucinda closed the show with a new song called "Come On" which I believe she said was part of a movie soundtrack. Terrific entertainers. Terrific show.