Lucinda Williams

If there's anything better than fixing food you love for people you love, it's having them sing songs you love for you when you're done. That's a roundabout way of explaining how I got two-thirds of the Flatlanders to play for me on my birthday. The story starts long, long ago in a place far, far away (well, back in the 1970s in Lubbock, Texas). It seems like several lifetimes ago, but back then I was a sportswriter at the local newspaper. It's kind of odd to say anyone is lucky to be in Lubbock at any time, but I certainly was lucky enough to be there at a magical moment when the local music scene -- always thriving -- was absolutely amazing.

Lucinda Williams "Live @ the Fillmore" (Lost Highway) * * * 1/2 There's something marvelously appropriate about one of today's most revealing singer-songwriters recording a live album in a venue so strongly identified with the '60s San Francisco rock scene that showcased Janis Joplin. Other women have aimed for the raw urgency of Joplin's explosive blues-rock style, but none has come as consistently close to sharing Joplin's naked vulnerability as Williams.

POP MUSIC American Idol Live! On one of its 49 stops across the country, the "Idol" tour cruises through the Honda Center for one performance only, featuring this year's top 10 finalists: Aaron Kelly, Andrew Garcia, Casey James, Crystal Bowersox, Didi Benami, Katie Stevens, Lee DeWyze, Michael Lynche, Siobhan Magnus and Tim Urban. Honda Center . $52.80-$89.10. 7:30 p.m. (714) 704-2500. http://www.hondacenter.com . Lucinda Williams The Grammy award-winning chanteuse will woo fans with her plain-spoken blend of country, folk, rock and blues.

Bob Dylan is many things to fans. He is multitudes, just as he's depicted in the film "I'm Not There," which delivered a collection of Dylans of different times and interpretations: as a simple troubadour, a young antihero, a family man, a sage. Some of those sides of Dylan appeared onstage Wednesday at the tribute concert "Like a Complete Unknown" at the Skirball Center, in connection with its detailed exhibit on Dylan's life -- his lyrics and image through the years, one of his old guitars, a handwritten high school essay on Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath."

How good was Lucinda Williams' performance Friday night at the Wiltern? Crazy good. And sane good, sexy good, playful good, anguished good, angry good, cathartic good, brawny good, rockin' good, bluesy good -- head, heart and soul good. Above all, the Louisiana-born singer-songwriter revels in the music of the soul, and judging from the remarkably rich litany of songs she's written over the last three decades, she's got one of the saddest-sweetest ones ever passed out.

It's a funny thing in the world of rock music, but for some artists to get creatively amped up, it's necessary to pull the plug. It worked for Bob Dylan, who returned to the wellspring of acoustic folk music in a couple of early-'90s albums before reasserting full command of his songwriting mastery in 1997's "Time Out of Mind," a musical renaissance from which he's never looked back. It worked for Bruce Springsteen when he put the E Street Band on hiatus and assembled the Sessions Band to mine the richness of American folk and gospel influences in "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions" album in 2006.

On his own and as a member of Crosby, Stills & Nash (and sometimes Young), two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Stephen Stills has taken part in many a benefit concert over the last four decades, but usually his role has been that of rock singer and guitarist. That changes with the Light Up the Blues benefit concert on Saturday for Autism Speaks, which CSN is headlining and also features Lucinda Williams, Rickie Lee Jones, Don Felder, Ryan Adams and several others at Club Nokia.

I decide to forego my distaste for all things Robert Hilburn for the radiant Lucinda Williams ("A Restless Pursuit of Love and Perfection," May 23). Hilburn somehow cannot refrain from referencing other artists in his interviews, as if he does not trust the authenticity of his subject or his own creativity. Jeanine D'Elia Granada Hills