Lucinda Williams performs at Salina’s Stiefel Theatre on Saturday.
The singer-songwriter released the album “World’s Gone Wrong” in January. In April she was recognized by The New York Times as one of the 30 greatest living American songwriters.
Such accolades are nothing new for Williams, whose 1998 LP “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” remains a highwater mark within the world of Americana music.
Since then, she’s released a string of critically acclaimed recordings and has been widely recognized by both peers and critics as a singular voice within American music.
While she has not had a string of hits on commercial radio, her fans embrace each new recording with enthusiasm, traveling great distances to catch her in concert where spontaneity and direct interaction with the audience continue to make those performances must-see events.
She recently spoke about her career, her audience, and music that she finds inspirational.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
When you have a new album out and start playing those songs for audiences, are you ever surprised by the reactions? Maybe you felt good about a song in the studio, but audiences greet it with an enthusiasm you weren’t expecting?
Yeah, and it’s always great when that happens. When you play a song and the audience knows it and they’ve listened to it on the record, it makes a big difference, compared to if you’re playing a song they’ve never heard before, they’re not familiar with it. It’s more fun to play stuff that people have heard before. Fortunately, I don’t get those big hit songs that are played on the radio all the time. I’ve heard about these bands that have had these one-hit wonder things, and they have to play [that song] so many times. Over and over and over and over. I never had that problem before ‘cause I don’t have big hit songs. I don’t know what it’s like to have that.
But you certainly have songs people feel attached to, that they want to hear.
Yeah, that’s a good place to be. I’m pretty comfortable where I am right now.
You’ve influenced a number of songwriters over the years. Were you aware when that was starting to happen?
I wouldn’t really know unless someone mentioned it to me. As the years go on, you hear about it from more people, and you start to feel like you’ve kind of reached an apex or something as an artist because of what other artists tell you.
Was there a song that you heard that made you say, “I want to do that”?
Yes, a lot. [Laughs.] I love Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders. [Sings part of “Brass In Pocket.”] It’s a great song. The song is great, her voice is ridiculous; it sounds so good on a record, I can’t stand it. I got into a studio to record and I tell my engineer, “I want my voice to sound like Chrissie’s voice on her records.” It’s this big, meaty … it’s got all this depth to it. It’s just real big sounding. I’m asking him, “How did she get that sound?” I want to talk to her engineer and find out what they do. Is it the mic? What is it? Everybody says, “I think it’s just the way she sings.” OK, well, I tried!
