Album of the Week: Lucinda Williams, 'The Ghosts of Highway 20'
by Bill DeVille
February 08, 2016
GQ magazine recently called Jason Isbell the King of Americana. Maybe Lucinda Williams is the reigning queen.
Sixty-three-year-old Lucinda Williams is an artist not known for a huge output of material. At one point in her career, she went six years between albums. This, however, is her second double album in less than two years. She never seems to lack subject matter.
The Ghosts of Highway 20 is inspired by the 190-mile highway near where Lucinda grew up in Louisiana. That's especially evident on the album title track; when she sings, "I know this road like the back of my hand," you believe her. She paints a pretty bleak picture of this highway, describing "Rundown motels and faded billboards / used cars for sale and rusty junkyards."
Another thing I've always loved about Lucinda is that she is not afraid to let her guitar players shine. Pickers Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz let it rip. There is some fascinating riffing going on here. If you are wondering who is playing what, the question is answered easily enough: That would be Bill Frisell in your right speaker and Greg Leisz in your left. It's almost like an early 1960s stereo recording.
As with most of Lucinda's albums, The Ghosts of Highway 20 features her usual deeply personal songs touching on life and death. The song "Death Came," for instance, is likely inspired by the loss of both of her parents.
Lucinda addresses mortality and death again on "Doors of Heaven," where she sings, "Someone told me there is a better place than this / where I can go and receive my mother's kiss / a place so full of love / somewhere up above." The lyrics are accompanied by some downright nasty licks laid down by Frisell and Leisz on the right and left side, respectively.
On "Dust," Lucinda totally kills the vocal. You can feel her ache. And once again, you have Bill Frisell's guitar on your right-side speaker and that of co-producer Greg Leisz on your left — no, we're not talking about a passing bicyclist on your cruise around Lake Calhoun.
The album isn't all life and death. On "Place In My Heart," Lucinda Williams shows a sweet side on this on this lazy little waltz. And she sounds as world-weary as an old bluesman on the track, "Bitter Memory."
After listening to The Ghosts of Highway 20, there's one thing to say: Long live the Queen of Americana, Lucinda Williams!