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Playlist | Lucinda Williams
A) Sexy, B) Loud or C) Dreamy? Try D) All of the Above.
By WINTER MILLER
IMAGINE a time before alternative country. Before Americana and roots rock. Picture a corner office, sometime in the early ’80s, with record executives scratching their heads over how to market a talented singer, songwriter and guitarist from Louisiana named Lucinda Williams. Was she country? Folk? Blues? The answer of course was (and is) all of the above. A three-time Grammy winner, Ms. Williams will release “West,” her eighth studio album, on Feb. 13. A tour is scheduled to begin soon after, including a stop at Radio City Music Hall on March 23. Ms. Williams, 54, shows no signs of getting any less sexy with her lyrics or her taste in music. She recently spoke by phone with Winter Miller about what she’s listening to now.
Sara Tavares
She’s Portuguese. She writes and sings beautifully melodic songs that have a dreamy, uplifting energy to them. I adore this kind of music and listen to a lot of it, whatever I can find. There’s something very soothing and hypnotic about it. It’s very sexy and wraps me up in coziness. It kind of transports me. Sara Tavares has a very fresh perspective. A fresh outlook: life is fun, life is glorious, live in the moment. That’s what her “Balancê” (Times Square) feels like.
Heartless Bastards
They’re cool, loud and raunchy. They’re a great live three-piece band: guitar, bass and drums. They’re from Ohio. Erika Wennerstrom, the guitar player, is unassuming and a little shy, but she has a mighty blues-rock voice. She just stomps and wails onstage. “All This Time” (Fat Possum) sounds new and edgy. They’re blending sounds from punk and blues, similar to what the Black Keys are doing, but more punk.
Carrie Rodriguez
Carrie is a young singer-songwriter with roots in Texas. She is the daughter of an Austin singer-songwriter, David Rodriguez. She started out accompanying other artists on violin and then spent some time as part of a duet with Chip Taylor, who is famous for writing “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning.” Now she is finally striking out on her own as well, and I have to say I am very impressed. She’s got something unique in her voice that’s very subtle and a little smoky and sweet. She’s got a refreshingly spunky attitude to go along with it. I detect a certain wisdom in her, and yet a sense of wonder as well. On “Seven Angels on a Bicycle” (Back Porch/Train Wreck/EMI), Chip Taylor contributes to the songwriting.
Richard Dorfmeister vs. Madrid de Los Austrias
I absolutely adore his stuff and listen to it all the time. You have to hear it. It’s remixed funk. It grooves big time. The music is filled with sexy beats, dance beats and very primitive beats. There is a connection between the hip-hop remix funk music of today and the Delta blues. When you listen to a record like “Grand Slam” (G-Stone), you hear how the music is based on African rhythms. It goes all the way back to that. With Dorfmeister, it sounds like he’s taking soul-funk music and blending hip-hop beats and reggae with African and Latin rhythms.
Gotan Project
I’m in love with them. I would describe their music as a Latin world-beat sound. It’s transcendent, moody and very percussive. Part of it was recorded in Paris and part of it in Buenos Aires. I’ve always been drawn to the Latin culture and collect South American and Mexican folk art. When I was growing up, we lived in Santiago, Chile, and Mexico City. “Lunático” (Ya Basta!/Science & Melodie) may well be the sexiest album I’ve ever listened to, and yet it’s so ethereal. It’s very global; there is a very erotic kind of beat supporting an exquisitely seductive, warm female vocal. I can’t say enough about them.
Lila Downs
She’s a beautiful Mexican woman and an academically trained artist who has rediscovered her roots. Here is a young girl with an old soul giving a nod to traditional Mexican folk music, ballads and rancheros and bringing them to a new audience. Her music is colorful and soulful, and she has been blessed with a gorgeous voice. The songs on “La Cantina” (Narada/EMI) are all in Spanish and include the English translations. On one of the songs she sings about how to make mole sauce.
Hem
They had another album before this that I liked, so I bought this one. I listened to “Funnel Cloud” (Waveland/Nettwerk) and was drawn in more each time I listened to it. There’s something about the melodies; they just feel very genuine to me. It’s the kind of record that doesn’t jump out at you right away. It grows on you. The majority of stuff I’ve really been blown away by has been international music. The last time I was blown away by a contemporary Caucasian singer-songwriter was when I heard Ryan Adams. I think in this day and age it’s important to reach out across the globe. We could all stand to be a lot more globally aware, get out of our own backyard.
Comets on Fire
They’re from Santa Cruz, Calif., and with the album “Avatar” (Sub Pop), they twist the psychedelic kaleidoscope of music’s past and turn it into something completely new. Imagine if the Allman Brothers met Queens of the Stone Age over at the Stooges’ house. And that’s just for starters.
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