Lucinda Williams recently played an NPR Tiny Desk Concert at National Public Radio's Washington D.C. office. Watch above on YouTube, and head to NPR.org for the free MP3 download.
The set is a real treat, with great songwriting and great performances. The first song is a haunting bluesy number, with exceptional musicianship supporting Lucinda's gritty vocals. Stuart Mathis' guitar playing is especially impressive, as he switches between slide work and fretting notes. On the second song, Lucinda picks up her acoustic guitar for the slow ballad, "Cold Day In Hell."
Things really get cooking with the third song, "Protection" which gets a very strong round of applause from the crowd at NPR. It's a great song, with a really great chorus. Williams picks up the guitar again for the last song, "West Memphis," and sings about the now infamous story of the West Memphis Three -- teenagers who were wrongly found guilty of murder in the '90s and released 18 years later once new evidence was found. Again, Mathis shows incredible talent on guitar and he also plays harmonica pretty damn good. The rhythm section is also smokin' throughout the entire performance, with Butch Norton on drums and David Sutton on bass.
All 4 of these songs are from Lucinda Williams' 2014 album, Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, which is available on Amazon (Vinyl, CD, MP3) and iTunes but not Spotify.
Source: NPR Music YouTube
