Poetry Hut Blog
Miller Williams and Lucinda Williams in Nashville (review)

The show was in an renovated movie theater near Vanderbilt University–The Belcourt. The last time I was there was in 1996 when I saw Hamlet. The film broke about 15 minutes into it haha.

The stage had a simple setup: lectern, 3 barstools, a table, a music stand. Seating was “general admission” so I got there about 45 minutes before the scheduled showtime. The show was about 45 minutes to an hour late, for some reason.

Miller Williams began (with his poem, The Caterpillar). He said that Lucinda provided the 2 closing lines, when she was five. Lucinda Williams said she is going to pick a song to play that would fit the poem her dad just read. It was spontaneous. After he read a poem she would flip through a thick notebook of songs and pick one. She followed this first poem with Car Wheels On A Gravel Road.

Lucinda was accompanied by Doug Pettibone on guitar. She played acoustic guitar throughout (a Gibson I think).

The 2nd poem was A Poem for Emily, which Miller Williams said was about his granddaughter. After he read, Lucinda was flipping through the notebook for an appropriate song. “I don’t have any grandchildren” she laughed, so she picked the song Blue. Doug Pettibone played a Gretsch Country Gentleman on this one. In the customary orange.

Miller Williams followed that with a poem called Catch With Rueben, about his grandson. Lucinda followed with Little Angel, Little Brother. She made a mistake (wrong guitar chord) not too long into the song and stopped and started the song over. Everyone cheered. “Thanks for allowing me to be human” she said.

Next poem was He Glimpses a Noble Vision. Lucinda said “Takes me longer to say in a song than what dad can do in a few lines.” She sang a new song, What If, which had some funny lines. “What if cats could walk on water? What if birds had bank accounts?” Then Miller Williams read Adjusting To The Light (about Lazarus coming back from the dead) and Lucinda Williams responded with Atonement.

Miller Williams said that his next poem, Ruby Tells All, (a narrative poem about a waitress) was Lucinda’s favorite. Then Lucinda sang The Night’s Too Long. (Also about a waitress.) Miller Williams said something about tension creating art and read As You Both Shall Live, then Lucinda sang another new song, The Knowing, which is a ballad.

Mostly it was short poems from then on. I mean short. Like a couplet or two. Personals and Compassion were next and Lucinda responded with Lake Charles. That is such a beautiful song.

I definitely fit the demographic of the audience. (I’ll be 40 next year.) But there were older and younger people there too. I noticed a few kids. I sat in an aisle seat and the couple to the left to me were odd. They didn’t clap at all. Just sat there. I didn’t notice it at first. Once I noticed it, it began to bug me a bit after each song or poem. Weird and rude.
Darryl told me once about a gig that he played with Chet Atkins @ K-Mart corporate HQ. (Darryl was his keyboard player/an arranger/a producer/a composer for about 15 years.) Anyway, nobody clapped at that gig. Chet was pretty mad.

Miller Williams read Listen, next. One of my favorites. Then a new poem, An Unrhymed Sonnet. He said it is forthcoming from his next book. Lucinda followed with I Lost It.

Another new poem: Helping A Lady of 11 Get Her Lessons followed (I think) by a song called Rescue?

More newness: For A Shy Young Woman — a poem inspired by what one of his students said to him once. (That she has never had any lucky thing happen to her.) The song Joy followed that. Of course. Then 3 short poems from the new book, which will be called Time and The Tilting Earth.When he finished those, Miller Williams got a standing ovation. For a long time too.

Lucinda closed the show with Tears of Joy. New song. Another standing ovation.

The end.

Tags: holocaust, Lucinda Williams, Miller Williams, Nashville

Filed under Blabbing, Nashville, Poetry News —