Queen of melancholy Lucinda Williams will perform at the Brown Theatre on Tuesday, April 24. Alan Messer Photo
It was 1998’s Car Wheels on a 
Williams boasts that same style and knack for storytelling on West, her newest album, which was released in February. On April 24 she’ll play the Brown Theatre with the musicians she used on West, so, although she’ll surely play her older hits, expect a heavy dose of the new stuff. That’s fantastic news, though, because some of these tracks beg to be performed live, with the crowd on its feet hollering along. On “Come On,” Williams, quite devastatingly, tells her “dude” that he can’t, well, please her: “You think you’re in hot demand, but you don’t know where to put your hand … You didn’t even make me,” pause, “Come on!” And on the fiery, nine-minute-long “Wrap My Head Around That,” she reaches the verge of rapping: “And what I thought you thought I thought was actually in your head.”
Williams also tackles serious subject matter fueled by lyrics written after her mother died (“Mama You Sweet,” “Fancy Funeral”), which is the kind of material that helped establish her devoted fan base in the beginning. There’s also the darkly sensual “Unsuffer Me” and “Learning How to Live,” which could be about her mother, a recent tumultuous and ill-fated romantic relationship or something else entirely: “I’ll make the most of what you left me with,” she sings. “I’m learning how to live without you in my life.”
Is West a better album than Car Wheels? That may be something Williams never accomplishes. One thing, however, is certain. It takes a special artist to sound this good singing about bees making honey in
Showtime Tuesday, April 24, is 7:30 p.m. at the Brown Theatre, and tickets cost $35. Call 584-7777 for information.
