Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (Deluxe Edition)

admin — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:04:00 +0000

Lucinda Williams may be notoriously slow in releasing albums, but such laborious love for her craft is evident in her choice to reissue Car Wheels on a Gravel Road as part of a new deluxe edition set. The set, which combines a remastered version of the original album and live cuts from her performance at Penn’s Landing during the WXPN Singer Songwriter Festival, is a collector’s dream.

Outtakes and new versions of favorite tunes done live make the investment worthwhile. As always, however, Williams own gravelly, soulful tone combined with realistic lyrics (“conversation with you was like a drug…/cause there’s something about what happens when we talk”) easily remind us of our faults, our successes and why we love her in the first place. She could be us, singing about the troubles in life without bemoaning them or harping too long on the choices that brought them. Her musical gestures resonate similarly—perfect chords, never a note too long or inappropriately placed. Beautiful tone combined with the hearty ability of this songstress lulls you into retrospective bliss. This double CD set can bring you up, remind you why you’re down and can easily please a crowd of diverse fans.

Written by: Dr. Julie E. Ferris, June 28th 2007

Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled

admin — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:28:00 +0000

By Melissa Etheridge

Island Records

I’ve always been a sporadic fan of Melissa Etheridge’s work; perhaps it’s because, to me, her lyrics often feel oddly a little sophmoric and platitudinously P.C.—even when her sound is rocking tough, true and primal. Her guitar sounds dangerous, but her words don’t. The disconnect in poetic feeling between her amazing guitar work and lackluster words is one of the reasons she’s not, up to now, been included on my ipod. However, I have just downloaded Etheridge’s version of Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart.”

A year or two ago, I saw her perform the song with Joss Stone at the Grammy’s and was transfixed. Etheridge’s performance was appropriately wild and snarly and shocked and bitter and betrayed and hopeful and all those emotions that escape and explode up through the cracks of a shattered heart. And the fact that she came out on stage bald— clearly in the midst of chemo treatment—ramped up the drama considerably in the endlessly fascinating drama of the human heart and what it can withstand and seek to rise above. Joplin probably would have toasted Ethridge with a little Southern Comfort after that tour de force reprisal. It’s too bad this studio version didn’t include Stone, but the song still zaps your soul with a major electrical charge.

For Melissa Etheridge fans, the Greatest Hits CD will not disappoint. It covers her seventeen-year career with an equal number of songs. You’ll find “Come to My Window,” “I Want To Come Over” and “Bring Me Some Water.” Newer songs are “I Run For Life,” an inspirational anthem for those dealing with breast cancer themselves or supporting a loved one through the struggle. Another great song that I also downloaded was “I Need To Wake Up,” the cautionary song accompanying the credit roll in Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” I also liked her do-over of Tom Petty’s “Refugee.” It’s as tough to take on Tom as it is Janis and she rocked it.

Written by: Cheryl Reeves, June 12th 2007