Three years after her last triumphant performance at Celtic Connections, Lucinda Williams made a welcome return to Glasgow to celebrate her new album ‘World’s Gone Wrong’. As a younger artist she was always known for taking her time between albums but since her stroke in 2020 she has become hugely prolific – releasing two albums of originals and her various ‘Jukebox’ series of cover albums, alongside a packed touring schedule. On stage she remains a powerful, potent voice, one whose message of peace and love was rapturously received by a packed crowd of fans.
Support on the evening came from troubadour Ben de la Cour, whose dark country noir covered themes of domestic abuse, violence and suicide. If that sounds a little unrelenting there were also some gentler, softer songs too along with tales of his Scottish heritage which easily won over the crowd. Stand out songs included the title track of his last record New Roses and a comical toe tapper dedicated to a New Orleans dive bar called The Basin Lounge.
Lucinda came on stage, needing some assistance to get to the microphone after her health struggles, but her all black rock ‘n’ roll outfit and Converse showed she wasn’t giving in to old age any time soon. She said she was honoured to be there and opened with the title track from her album ‘World Without Tears’ followed by ‘World’s Gone Wrong’ both of which are an unnervingly relevant soundtrack to the dark days of this winter. Afterwards she admitted being glad to be in Scotland because of how things had ‘gone wrong in America’. She kept her aim on Trump all evening with fiery versions of songs like ‘How Much Did You Get for Your Soul’, ‘You Can’t Rule Me‘ and her cover of Bob Marley’s ‘So Much Trouble in the World’.
She dipped into her back catalogue for more personal songs like classics ‘Pineola’, ‘Lake Charles’ and ‘Drunken Angel‘, all about the ‘wild and woolly’ characters’ that she knew in her youth. Her band sounded great, despite the loss of guitarist Doug Pettibone to a family emergency. They had a bluesy energy on songs like ‘Black Tears‘ about the civil rights struggle, and brought a snarling punk rock feel to great versions of ‘Changed the Locks‘, ‘Honey Bee‘ and the encore song ‘Joy’.
One of the highlights of the set for me was the new song ‘Low Life‘ which is about finding comfort in a smoky bar, listening to the jukebox and feeling like you’ve found your place in the world. When she sang ‘I guess this is the low life / But it’s where I wanna be‘ it felt fitting, even if we were in the faded splendour of an old theatre in Scotland.
I saw someone on social media criticising Lucinda’s choice to finish her live sets with a cover Neil Young’s ‘Rockin’ in the Free World‘, suggesting it was a too safe and obvious choice. That’s clearly nonsense because in her hands this song became genuinely one of the most moving and powerful live performances I’ve ever heard. Lucinda raged against the dying of the light – every note and raised fist was a call to arms and a reminder that we’ve come too far to give up now. The Glasgow crowd responded with a wave of emotion and I, for one, ended up with tears streaming down my face. In the summer I saw Neil do this song too, playing the refrain over and over again until they pulled the plug on him. Thank god legends like these two just refuse to fade away.
Lucinda finished at the microphone with a reminder that: ‘People have the power!’
Evenings like these just remind us to be grateful that we’ve got musicians like Lucinda who KEEP HOPE ALIVE.
Setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/lucinda-williams/2026/pavilion-theatre-glasgow-scotland-234ba43b.html
Highway Queens 
Brilliant review Michelle. Saw her last week in Birmingham and apart from the utter brilliance I am not sure I have ever felt such an feeling of love from the audience for an artist (contestants would be Nanci when she was very plainly unwell and Liza Minelli – but the latter is a bit of a special case!).
LikeLike