Lucinda Williams just isn't the type to work up a sweat on stage. Intimacy is a far more important ingredient to her brand of folk-rock and blues, which builds an atmosphere of emotional grit and longing that would be at home in any honky-tonk. Her blend of wit and wisdom regularly attracts the likes of Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Patty Loveless to her songbook.
At the first show of a three-night engagement at LunaPark on Sunday, Williams and her three-piece band played a no-frills set that was deceptively relaxed. Within the subtle, country-rock shadings were tales of real experience, whether the suicide of an Arkansas poet or a failed romance, sung as sad and mad as a George Jones tune.
