LUCINDA WILLIAMS plays Massey Hall Friday and Saturday (March 4 and 5). See listing. Rating: NNN
Buttercup opens Lucinda Williams’s new album, and it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from the enduring American songwriter: a country-rockin’ kiss-off to some inconsiderate jerk who, in this instance, “sucked her dry.” Why does she keep getting involved with these types? We’re talking almost a whole catalogue of done-me-wrong tunes.
As it turns out, Williams has been happily married for several years, and Buttercup is something of a ruse, the only song that treads such familiar ground. Williams is more observational than personal throughout Blessed, looking upon her downtrodden characters with sympathy and compassion. “You were born to be loved,” she sings repeatedly on Born To Be Loved, while the stripped-down Soldier’s Song could have made The Hurt Locker soundtrack. The latter is one of the few tracks (over)producer Don Was didn’t crowd with his army of studio musicians.
Top track: Soldier’s Song
