Caught the show last night and had a great time. Alejandro opened with his all-acoustic band; two cellos, violin, lead acoustic guitar, along with his own guitar, and they played several songs from his latest "The Boxing Mirror"; Dear Head on the Wall (lyrics were written by his wife who was in an Arizona restaurant with a ton of deer heads on the wall), Arizona, and One True Love. I like the record and the acoustic set was pretty cool.

But we really came to see Lucinda, and she didn't disappoint. Backed by a great lead guitarist (Doug Pettibone), bass and drums, she played for nearly 2 hours and chose many of the songs I'd hope to hear. From her stellar Car Wheels On a Gravel Road came the best of the night; Lake Charles, Drunken Angel, Concrete and Barbed Wire and the title track. Drunken Angel was the first song she played and, after getting through the first verse, she started coughing and had to stop the band. After someone brought her some "cough medicine" (yeah, right!) she didn't miss a beat the rest way.

From her "Lucinda Williams" record she played only Crescent City, which was among the best of the night, but I really wanted to hear more from this one.From Essence she played Get Right With God and the title track, from World Without Tears came Righteously, and a couple of tracks from her new release, West, called Come On and Fancy Funeral. She had a pretty good little story about Fancy Funeral; a relative recently passed away and she was responsible for making the arrangements. She mentioned how surreal it is "shopping" at a funeral parlor, and how she felt they take advantage of people who are in a vulnerable state of mind and are apt to spend more than they can afford, while the decedent could care less.

I can't recall the last song in the encore, but for the first one, Joy, she brought out Alejandro as a second lead guitar and he jammed well with Doug. At the beginning of the show she told us they were going to be a bit looser than usual because they had the day off "tomorrow" before playing in Nashville on Friday night. I guess she was telling the truth since most of the tunes were up-tempo and the crowd was into it nearly the entire show. If you have a chance to catch her on this tour, I would highly recommend it. She reminded me why I love alt-country so much and I'll be spinning lots of Lucinda in the coming weeks.

Swish