Question: If you were going to interview Lucinda Williams, what would you ask? And let me point out, the bad girl of alt-country isn’t doing any interviews these days.
She’s recently released West, a lush lounge-infused Quaalude of an album, rich with heartbreak (her mother’s death; no-account lovers) and the dim hope of distant happiness. Most artists, once they get out of the studio, get right on the horn with the press hoping to hype the CD and push the sales, but Williams was never one to play by the rules.
Do I sound bitter here? It’s been a weird couple of weeks for lining up interviews, though an astrologist friend of mine says Mercury is in retrograde, so I’m sure that’s what’s going on. That, and Williams is well-connected enough not to need to do the hard sell. Her fans are a dedicated group who get her love of Coltrane, tight jeans and bad men.
What I want to know is, what do you want to know? There’s plenty of info available, but then again, Williams isn’t one to tell all. If you had access to her diary, what would you like to find among the pages? If you you happened on her late one night in a smoky roadhouse and she was in a talking mood, what secrets would you hope she’d reveal? If you could ask her one burning question, what would it be?
I, for one, am wondering how, at 54, she stays in such good shape (is she secretly under the tutelage of one Rodney Yee? Perhaps cutting the whiskey with wheatgrass juice?). I’m also wondering if she has any plans to break free of the Americana umbrella and stretch her wings. West makes a definitive move from Williams’ trademark twang — at least instrumentally — so, is this a sign of things to come?
Questions? Answers?
— Alli Marshall, A&E reporter
