From the press release:
NEW YORK (Billboard) – Loss and loneliness are at the core of Lucinda Williams‘ largely down-tempo album, “West,” the singer/songwriter’s first release since 2003.
The disc, slated to be released February 13 via Lost Highway, finds the Grammy winner coping with another painful breakup and the passing of her mother, whom she reminisces in songs like “Mama You Sweet” and “Fancy Funeral.” In such songs as “Come On,” “Learning How to Live” and “Everything Has Changed,” Williams again deals with heartbreak.
“The songs deal with a chapter in my life and they definitely tell a story,” Williams told Billboard.com. “It’s probably been the most prolific time in my life as a writer. I’d been through so many changes — my mother’s death and a very tumultuous relationship that ended badly — so obviously there’s a lot of pain and struggling, but it ends with a look toward the future.”
Featuring the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris, celebrated drummer Jim Keltner, longtime Bob Dylan bassist Tony Garnier (both of whom played on her “Essence” disc) and Williams’ longtime guitarist Doug Petibone, “West” was co-produced by Williams and Hal Willner, whose credits include Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Bill Frisell, who also guests on the “West.”
But “West” is not a completely somber affair. “Mama You Sweet” is upbeat and “Come On” is a nasty, almost raunchy kiss-off, musically akin to “Atonement” from 2003’s “World Without Tears.”
She injects doses of hope and light in tracks like “What If,” in which she imagines a world where the president wears pink and a prostitute is a queen.
“I get tired of people looking at my songs and feeling that they’re all sad and dark,” she said. “There’s more to them than that. Some people might read Flannery O’Connor and see that as simply dark — and it is dark and disturbing — but there’s a philosophical aspect, even a comical aspect to it as well. I think that’s all there on this album. It’s a full circle, like I’ve come through a metamorphosis.”