Williams has garnered considerable critical acclaim but her commercial success has been moderate. She has a reputation as a perfectionist and as a slow worker when it comes to recording; six years passed between the release of her second and third albums. However, she frequently makes guest appearances on other artists' albums and contributes to compilations and soundtracks. She has recorded with Elvis Costello, Nanci Griffith, John Prine, Leftover Salmon, and Steve Earle, among others. She has also opened concerts for artists such as Neil Young.
Early life
Williams was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the daughter of poet and literature professor Miller Williams. Her father worked as a visiting professor in Mexico and Chile as well as different parts of the American South, before settling at the University of Arkansas. His daughter showed an affinity for music at an early age, and was playing guitar at 12.
Career
By her early 20s, Williams was playing publicly in Austin, Texas and Houston, Texas, concentrating on a folk-rock-country blend. She moved to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1978 to record her first album, for Smithsonian/Folkways Records. Titled Ramblin', it was a collection of country and blues covers. She followed it up in 1980 with Happy Woman Blues, which consisted of her own material. Neither album received much attention.
In the 1980s Williams moved to Los Angeles, California (before finally settling in Nashville, TN), where -- performing both backed by a rock band and in acoustic settings -- she developed a following and a critical reputation. Nevertheless, it was not until 1988 that Rough Trade Records released the self-titled Lucinda Williams. The single "Changed the Locks", about a broken relationship, received radio play around the country and gained fans among music insiders, including Tom Petty, who would later cover the song.
Its follow-up, Sweet Old World (Chameleon, 1992), was a melancholy album dealing with themes of suicide and death. Williams's biggest success during the early '90s was as a songwriter. Mary Chapin Carpenter recorded a cover of "Passionate Kisses" (from Lucinda Williams) in 1992, and the song became a smash country hit for which Williams received the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1994.
Williams had garnered considerable critical acclaim, but her commercial success was moderate. Emmylou Harris said of Williams, "She is an example of the best of what country at least says it is. But, for some reason, she's completely out of the loop. And I feel strongly that that's country music's loss."
Williams also gained a reputation as a perfectionist and slow worker when it came to recording; six years would pass before her next album release, though she appeared as a guest on other artists' albums and contributed to several tribute compilations during this period.
The long-awaited release, 1998's Car Wheels on a Gravel Road was Williams' breakthrough to the mainstream. Containing the single "Still I Long for Your Kiss" from the Robert Redford film The Horse Whisperer, the album received wide critical notice and soon went gold. It received a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. She toured with Bob Dylan and on her own in support of the album.
Williams followed up the success of Car Wheels with Essence (2001). This release featured a less produced, more stripped-down approach both musically and lyrically, and moved Williams further from the country music establishment while winning fans in the alternative music world. She won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Rock performance for the single "Get Right With God", an atypically uptempo gospel-rock tune from the otherwise rather low-key release. The title track was co-written and co-recorded with alternative country musician Ryan Adams.
Her seventh album, World Without Tears, was released in 2003. A musically adventurous though lyrically downbeat album, this release found Williams experimenting with talking blues stylings and electric blues.
In 2006, Lucinda recorded a version of the John Hartford classic "Gentle On My Mind," which played over the closing credits of the Will Ferrell filmTalladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby
Williams was a guest vocalist on the song "Factory Girls" from Irish punk-folk band Flogging Molly's 2004 album, "Within a Mile of Home", and appeared on Elvis Costello's The Delivery Man. She duetted with Steve Earle on the song "You're Still Standin' There" from his album I Feel Alright from 1996.
Williams released the album "West" on February 13, 2007, to mostly good reviews. The material is highly personal, chronicling the death of her mother and the breakup of a turbulent relationship.
Lucinda released her ninth studio album, "Little Honey", on October 14th.
Blue
Lucinda Williams Lyrics
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And see what a quarter will do
I don't want to talk
I just want to go back to blue
Feeds me when I'm hungry
And quenches my thirst
Loves me when I'm lonely
Blue is the color of night
When the red sound disappears from the sky
Raven feathers shiny and black
A touch of blue glistening down her back
We don't talk about heaven
And we don't talk about hell
We've come to depend on
One another so damn well
So go to confession
Whatever gets you through
You can count your blessings
I'll just count on blue
The lyrics to Lucinda Williams’s song “Blue” are a poetic reflection on the power of a state of mind, color or feeling that transcends description. The song paints an impressionistic picture of what it means to feel blue, from the color of the night sky to a bird’s feathers, from finding solace in music to relying on someone else. The opening lines suggest a desire for solitude and the promise of the jukebox as a source of comfort, with the singer offering a tribute to melancholy.
The chorus is a refrain that returns throughout the song, and acts as a summation of the verse’s observations about the color blue. Nighttime is described as blue when the stars and moon are obscured by darkness, while a bird’s feathers can shimmer with the blue hue. The elusive, emotional quality of blue is conveyed in the line, “Feeds me when I'm hungry, and quenches my thirst/Loves me when I'm lonely, and thinks of me first.” The singer of the song seems to be someone who finds solace in the color blue as a way of coping with the vicissitudes of life, rather than seeking religious or philosophical solace.
Overall, the mood of the song is one of calm resignation and acceptance, without resignation to despair or fatalism. The singer finds comfort in the unknown, rather than attempting to explain or rationalize it. The song celebrates the unique power of different shades of blue, from the inky shade of raven feathers to the softness of the night sky, and invites the listener to share in that appreciation. As a result, the song is a testament to the timeless appeal of feelings that transcend language, and to the role that music and art play in touching our deepest emotions.
Line by Line Meaning
Go find a jukebox
Go out and reminisce your past memories
And see what a quarter will do
And relive those moments with just a quarter in a jukebox
I don't want to talk
I don't want to express in words what I feel
I just want to go back to blue
I just want to feel the tranquillity of being blue
Feeds me when I'm hungry
Blue comforts me when I feel famished for peace
And quenches my thirst
And heals my soul when I feel dry inside
Loves me when I'm lonely
Blue hugs me when I feel abandoned by everyone
And thinks of me first
And is the first thing that comes to mind when I need solace
Blue is the color of night
Blue represents the calmness of night-time
When the red sound disappears from the sky
When the noise of day subsides and we embrace the quietude of the night
Raven feathers shiny and black
A comparison to how beautiful and dark blue can be
A touch of blue glistening down her back
Blue is everywhere, even when we don't see it
We don't talk about heaven
We don't contemplate about the eternal abode
And we don't talk about hell
And we don't discuss the place of eternal suffering
We've come to depend on
We rely on each other's company and loving support
One another so damn well
We know each other too well to have to speak about things
So go to confession
Go ahead and confess your secrets and sins
Whatever gets you through
Whatever helps you cope and find peace
You can count your blessings
You can tally up the good things in your life
I'll just count on blue
I'll just rely on the tranquillity that blue brings me
Lyrics © DistroKid, Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: NICHOLAS KEITH WHITECROSS, D. JHINGORE, J. WILLIAMS, STEPHEN RUDDEN, YINKA CHARLES
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind