PHOTO: DANNY CLINCH | The gravelly drawl was familiar. Lucinda Williams was calling from Minneapolis, where she just appeared as a special guest on Cyndi Lauper’s farewell tour, joining her on a poignant “Time After Time.” Days earlier, Williams dueted with Elvis Costello on “Wild Horses” at the Jesse Malin comeback concert in New York City.
It all followed a fall tour that alternated the autobiographical Don’t Tell Anyone the Secrets I Told You, based on last year’s memoir of the same name, with a tour that emphasized her 15th studio album Stories from a Rock and Roll Heart, also released in 2023.
Now, she’s got a new album on Thirty Tigers, Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles from Abbey Road featuring her takes on “I Got a Feeling,” “Yer Blues,” “Rain” and others. It represents the seventh edition in a series of Lu’s Jukebox series of cover songs saluting specific artists. All of this despite suffering a stroke in 2020 that sidelined some of her activities, including guitar playing.
We talked about the new album, the difficulty of choosing Beatles songs, writing her book, and the vinyl that set her on her course.
How did the Lu’s Jukebox series begin, anyway?
I always enjoyed taking other people’s songs and playing them to see what we could do with them. We had some studio time at Room and Board studios in Nashville with Ray Kennedy, who had been Steve Earle’s guy, and we worked with him so we were excited to set up some time, and we picked a couple of artists to do and picked the songs. Tom Petty was the first.
We knew a couple of guys who were good at videos and photographing and brought them in, to film those live sessions which we would then livestream. It just kind of took off, people seemed to really like it, and we decided to put them out as albums and as CDs. We were on a roller coaster
You went on to do soul and country classics, a Christmas album, and tributes to Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones—all in addition to making a new album of your own material. Did you have all that time because the pandemic kept you from touring?
That’s the whole thing. We wanted to be productive. Since we couldn’t go out and things were limited, we just decided to spend our time in the studio.
It had been a couple of years since your last Jukebox collection. What made this one different, recording at Abbey Road?
That’s the biggest difference. After the last one we were talking about what artists we were going to do next. We’d done a Rolling Stones one, and once you do a Stones one, who’s next? The Beatles. We were going to do a show in London anyway, so we had this idea of going into Abbey Road to cut Beatles songs, so it all fell together.
But first I had to pick the songs, and that was the hardest part of it. Then we rehearsed in Nashville before we left. When we got to Abbey Road we had three days.
Did you gravitate towards the Beatles songs you liked the best, or to those that best suited your sound?
A little of both. First, the ones I liked the best, I made that list, the initial list. There were ones I remembered from a long time ago, but for others I had to go through and look at albums and remember some songs.
What made the final list, once I made the list of the ones I liked, I had to sit down and sing through them and decide which one fit me the best. That’s what made the final decision. We had to pick out the ones in the right key. Once I sat and actually tried to sing them, It was obvious which ones would work.
Were there any that were tough to do?
Well, the one that gave me the most trouble was “I’m So Tired.” We ended up doing it and we got it figured out. But when I was first trying to sing it, it was that first line of the song, “I’m sooo tired…” I went up on the last note and it never sounded right. Then I realized I was over-singing it, that it wasn’t as complicated as I was making it. It’s bare. It’s a minor note. I was over compensating and making it harder than I needed to. I just had to relax and realize it doesn’t jump up to this note like I thought it did.
Are there parts of their catalog you gravitated to?
I love their early ’60s stuff. They still are great songs. I think they’ve held up through the years. We did do “Can’t Buy Me Love.” I mean I”m sure I could have done more. There’s so many.
What was it like being at that studio? Were there remnants of The Beatles’ era there that inspired you?
It looked like a regular, modern studio. You couldn’t really tell if anything was from The Beatles days. Maybe they should go in there and redecorate it so it looks more like the early ’60s, it doesn’t really have a style of its own. Nothing looks or stands out about it that you would remember. They do have a little gift shop with all The Beatles swag—Abbey Road coffee cups and all that. But you have to book the time to go in there. You can’t just walk in.
At first they didn’t know who I was, which was kind of cute. Ray Kennedy had set us up with who to talk to. He’s a Beatles expert and fanatic and his wife is from Liverpool. But at first at the studio they didn’t know who I was. We had to wait a few days. It has that exclusiveness vibe about it, and they’re very protective about it. And they should be. You’re not free to take pictures.
As a rule you haven’t been touring with the material from Lu’s Jukebox, have you?
We’ve started doing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in our shows and I mix it in with a bunch of my songs. But we haven’t been touring the Jukeboxes exclusively.
Have you ever crossed paths with any of The Beatles?
The only one I’ve ever met was Ringo. And that’s because my husband and manager Tom Overby and I were still living in LA and he used to have these annual birthday party gatherings. They’d put up a temporary stage, right in front of Capitol Records building in Hollywood and he’d invite some of his rock star buddies to come down, and they’d have this jam sessions. He was really nice and down to earth. But I didn’t sit in. I was kind of shy.
It seems like your voice has gotten stronger in recent tours. Are you concentrating on it more because you can’t play guitar at the moment?
Thanks. I guess that kind of happens without me realizing it. A lot of people have commented on it. All I know is when you have a stroke, it’s a toss of the dice of what’s affected by it and what’s not. For me, it’s things like my walking and my hands—I can’t play guitar right now, but I’m hoping that improves. At least I have my voice. Some other people haven’t been as lucky. Some people have trouble talking after a stroke.
It seems like you’ve been busier than ever since the stroke—with all the touring, the Jukebox albums, your own album, a book and a couple of tours.
Nothing ever slowed down like you thought it might. It’s good. It’s keeps me active and going. For me it was the best way to approach things. And people are very supportive and very appreciative that I’m out there. They make comments all the time about how I’m an inspiration, and they ask me how I’m doing it still. It’s nice.
What made you decide it was time to write a book?
A lot of people mentioned that I should write a book. It was always in the back of my mind. Tom started talking to some publishers who started reaching out and making offers, just like when you’re talking to record companies. We picked one finally and then it sunk in that now I’ve got to write a book. I’ve never done anything like it before. It proved to be a pretty daunting task. It takes up a lot of time. I just didn’t know the ins and outs of it like I do when I’m writing a song.
A lot of it was trial and error. I had a lot to say, but the logistics of it, I couldn’t type or write on a computer or typewriter because of the stroke, so that was frustrating. I had to literally write by hand. It just took so much longer than I thought. And I was always worried—are people going to like it? I didn’t feel as secure as I do when writing songs.
Then once I started, I kind of got on a roll, it got a little easier. The hardest part was the deadline thing. I wanted to be able to turn it in when it was done. Unfortunately the editor has to see what you’re writing as you’re going along. They’d say, “We got about a week.” And I’m like, “Wait! I want to go back and fix this stuff!” And they’re like, “No, you can’t do that. The book has to come out now. There’s no time for revisions or anything.” That made me mad and really frustrated. It’s second nature for me to go through and fix things up. There were certain things I wanted to handle delicately. I didn’t want things to come across the wrong way. But I wasn’t able to.
As a songwriter you are probably used to using just the right word in each line, and concerned about the rhythm of each phrase. But book editors might just plow through all that.
That’s exactly right. That’s what it is.
But having a memoir made it a natural basis for a tour that told your story chronologically, with song. Was that cathartic for you to be able to look back like that, even if, as you say on stage, a lot of the songs have to do with death?
It kind of is. It depends on the subject matter. Certain things are harder to look back on and talk about. I have to think a lot when I’m doing those book shows. They’re similar to doing a book. I want it to come across a certain way.
If it’s a good night and I’m feeling relaxed and secure and there’s a good audience, it’s great. At most of the book shows, I started loosening up with the audience. I talk about the time my dad met Hank Williams and I sing a Hank Williams song, and there’s a connection.
I noticed some of the dates on your recent tour were about the book, and others were more conventional and were supporting your latest album.
Yeah, it depended on the bookings. There are certain rooms that were better for the book show, and certain rooms that were better for the rock show.
Were there any vinyl albums in your past that were especially inspirational to you?
The one I talk about a lot is Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited. The songs first of all, but the production also on that album. It really defined what I wanted to do and be. I wanted to write songs like he did, and make a record that sounded like he did. That album really grabbed me and stayed with me.
The year it came out was 1965 and I was 12 and a half. It was the same year I started playing guitar and taking lessons. I just jumped in with abandonment into the contemporary folk scene that was happening and Bob Dylan was the head of it.
My family was living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and my father was teaching literature at LSU. One of his students came over when Highway 61 had just come out. He knocked on the door and I opened it, and he said “This is it!” He was waving the album around frantically, and saying “Everyone needs to hear this album right now! This is amazing! This is serious! Listen to this record right now!” He was adamant. I was like, wow, what’s this all about?
The guy comes in and sets it down and goes to talk to my dad. So I go pick it up and start looking at the photograph on the cover which in of itself drew me in. Here’s this lanky young man with tousled hair and a Triumph motorcycle T-shirt. Already I was smitten. Already I was pulled in. It was an attraction thing. Then I put it on the stereo and F. It blew my little 12-year-old mind. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know what some of the words were about. There was something that connected with something in my brain or in my soul. I was hooked after that. Then I went back and discovered all the albums he did that had come out.
We have a lot of vinyl at home. Obviously, you can’t bring a lot of albums on the road. They’re big and there’s no way to play them. Then here comes the CD. I didn’t like them when they first came out. Everything I had was on vinyl. A lot of albums you couldn’t get in CD form, though. I still have a lot of albums I could never part with.
Vinyl gets scratched. It’s hard to carry around. At the same time I couldn’t stand to part with them. A lot of it for me were the great album covers, and the whole experience, like when I saw Highway 61 studying the cover and reading all the credits and the liner notes. It was like being inside the music.
Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road is in stores now via Thirty Tigers.
