Listen below to Lucinda Williams new single ‘You Can’t Rule Me’. The track opens her new album ‘Good Souls Better Angels‘ which is released on April 24th (Highway20/Thirty Tigers) and which is being called her boldest and most direct album to date on which she unabashedly takes on some of the human, social and political issues of our day.
She has a number of UK and Ireland dates lined up (details below) which include Green Man Festival as well as Dublin’s iconic Vicar Street venue.
In 2014 and 2015, Williams released two critically acclaimed double albums back to back with Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone and The Ghosts Of Highway 20, respectively. Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone was also a Featured Album of the Month on Folk Radio, the review for which was accompanied by an in-depth interview here. Unlike those two albums, the suggestion here is that on Good Souls Better Angels, Williams changes course and chooses to forgo the personal and narrative-based songcraft that has become synonymous with her name and instead speaks to some of the injustices permeating our society. The new songs cut straight to the core with frank and honest commentary on domestic abuse (“Wakin’ Up”), the constant barrage of news (“Bad News Blues”) the dangerous, quick to judge and convict aspects of social media (“Shadows & Doubts) and the haunting reality of the “Man Without A Soul”.
The album also marks the first time Williams’ husband/manager Tom Overby is credited as a co-writer on many of the new songs. The album was co-produced by Williams, Overby and Ray Kennedy, who last worked with Williams on her 1998 landmark album Car Wheels On A Gravel Road.
Lucinda plays the following UK and Ireland dates.
August
Fri 14th – IRELAND, DUBLIN, Vicar Street
Sat 15th – BELFAST, Limelight 1
Sun 16th – IRELAND, KILKENNY, St Canice’s Cathedral
Tues 18th – WALLASEY, Floral Pavilion Theatre
Thurs 20th – CAMBRIDGE, Junction
Sat 22nd – GLANUSK PARK, Green Man Festival
Tracklisting on Good Souls Better Angels:
- You Can’t Rule Me
- Bad News Blues
- Man Without a Soul
- Big Black Train
- Wakin’ Up
- Pray the Devil Back to Hell
- Shadows & Doubts
- When the Way Gets Dark
- Bone of Contention
- Down Past the Bottom
- Big Rotator
- Good Souls
LP Only (Side D):
- Bad News Blues (Acoustic Demo)
- Pray the Devil Back to Hell (Acoustic Demo)
- You Can’t Rule Me (Acoustic Demo)
- Man Without a Soul (Acoustic Demo)
- Wakin’ Up (Acoustic Demo)
https://www.lucindawilliams.com/
Photo Credit: Danny Clinch