Lucinda Williams strikes a variety of tones on her new album, 'Blessed'
Lucinda Williams has become known for songs about unrequited love and broken relationships, so much so that when the 58-year-old singer-songwriter got married recently, some wondered whether her writing days were over.
Hardly.
Williams says she's as motivated by music as ever, and her latest record, "Blessed" (Lost Highway), proves that personal happiness hasn't dulled her writing instincts one bit.
The record opens with "Buttercup," a snarling smackdown of an ex-lover that could have fit on any of Williams' previous albums. But then the songwriting takes off in multiple directions, covering subjects as varied as suicide ("Seeing Black"), war ("Soldier's Song") and human compassion ("To Be Loved").
"I wasn't thinking about doing that when I wrote the songs," Williams said in a phone interview between stops on her current tour, which includes a show at Durty Nellie's in Palatine next week.
"I was just drawn in that direction - who knows why. I can tell you I've always wanted to write more 'topical' songs, the kind of stuff that Dylan did so well. But it was hard for me. And for whatever reason, I was able to do some of that with this batch of songs."
The tracks on "Blessed" blend elements of rock, country and blues. Many simmer along in the slow to midtempo range, propelled forward by acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards and rootsier instruments like harmonica.
Linking all the songs is Williams' startling voice - a husky, aching drawl that can express heartfelt longing and cold anger with equal power.
She uses that voice to evoke the darkness of tracks like "Soldier's Song," which takes us inside the mind of a despairing soldier who wonders what he's doing "in this Godforsaken place."
Just as often, though, Williams hits sweet, loving notes, like in the record's excellent closer, "Kiss Like Your Kiss."
"I'm actually a hopeful person," Williams said with a laugh. "I tend to see the glass as always being half-full. Of course there are times I look around and get angry at what I see in this world, and right here in this country. And it's important to present that in art. But I also want to recognize the good that can happen between people."
Williams, a Louisiana native, has been writing and making music since the 1980s. She put out a series of records that were acclaimed by critics and fellow artists, but failed to attract a big audience.
Then came "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," Williams' 1998 gem that went gold, earned a Grammy and made her a key figure in the burgeoning alt-country movement.
She's retained a devoted following since then, and some critics have said that "Blessed" is her best record since "Car Wheels."
"I'm very grateful about the reception we've gotten with this record," she said. "I'm very proud of it. We've been having so much fun on this current tour, and I look forward to sharing that with all the folks in Chicago."
<b>Lucinda Williams (with Blake Mills)</b>
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8
Where: Durty Nellie's, 180 N. Smith St., Palatine
Tickets: $30; call (847) 358-9150 or go to