Graham Parker and Lucinda Williams, two of the best songwriters in Anglo-American pop today, shared the bill at the tiny 9:30 club Thursday night. lf such a booking is an indictment of a music industry that can't find a broader audience for two such obvious talents, then it was a blessing for those who got into the show (and its follow-up Friday night). Bunched up tight around the stage, the crowd heard London's Parker and Austin's Williams prove that passion and intelligence don't have to get in each other's way but can actually spur each other onward.
In typical mischievous fashion, Parker sang one song from each of his first 12 studio albums in chronological order, and he always picked the least obvious number, the one that had never gotten any airplay. The gambit worked, because Parker is such a strong writer that even his most obscure material - hard edged rockers like "Clear Head," bouncy pop like "Dancing for Money" or soul ballads like "Anniversary" - are effective without the crutch of familiarity. Parker keeps improving as a sineer, and his renditions Thursday often trumped the original versions with richer tone, smoother phrasing and more revealing inflections. He closed the show with eight songs from his new album, "Buming Questions," his best in four years.
Williams is still a bit uncomfortable onstage, and it took her six songs of staring at the ceiling to warm up. Once she did, though, she sang with an uninhibited honesty that combined the best qualities of Bonnie Raitt and Rosanne Cash. When she addressed a friend dead from suicide in "Sweet Old World," the title ballad from her superb new album, her frail soprano vibrated with a mix of ache and resentment that seemed to resonate with everyone in the crowd. When she cried out for "a comfortable bed ... warm clothes ... and passionate kisses" to a rocking beat, it was clear she wouldn't take no for an answer. Watching her band onstage, it was clear how much guitarist-producer Gurf Morlix contributes to the songs, opening them up again and again with lyrical guitar fills and solos that expand the mood as much as the harmony.
- Geoffrey Himes
Reproduced with kind permission from Geoffrey Himes.
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