Lucinda started her 2005 tour in San Diego on June 15, following the release of her new live double CD "Live At The Fillmore."  Here is a pre-concert article on that day:

Lucinda Williams -- Tough, tender Lucinda Williams has struggled with failed relationships, self-doubt and the enmity of perfectionism to emerge as one of America's greatest songwriters.
By Tiffany Lee-Youngren
FOR SIGNONSANDIEGO

Despite her gritty sensibilities and writerly genes (dad is award-winning poet Miller Williams), songwriting hasn't always come easy for Lucinda Williams. Long gaps between albums and famed bouts of second-guessing proved that for this 52-year-old, crafting a song from a blank sheet of paper and a few guitar strings can be a bumpy ride.

But self-torture and endless stretches of studio time have paid off in spades for Williams: She's earned herself a Grammy, near unanimous respect from critics and fans of both country and rock, a lengthy tribute from The Los Angeles Times, which featured her in its esteemed series, "The Songwriters." Accompanying the Times piece were photocopies of song drafts from Williams' collection -- notebook pages full of scrawled footnotes and crossed-out phrasings that demonstrate not only her vulnerability as an artist, but also her courage and perseverance. Times writer Robert Hilburn deemed Williams a "songwriter's songwriter" and compared her to the likes of Bob Dylan and Cole Porter.Most recently, you can find Williams on the cover of Tracks Magazine as she discusses her recent travels, her birthday and upcoming albums.

Yet even as the praise is heaped upon her, Williams squirms away, hiding behind her words and beneath her ever-present cowboy hat. Her interviews are few, and she prefers to play small venues (in an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune, she admitted that a stint opening for Neil Young's arena tour last year left her feeling a bit overwhelmed). But it's no matter. As she says in "Fruits of My Labor" off her newest album, "World Without Tears:" I'll take the glory any day over the fame, baby.

Humphries By The Bay - Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - 7:30 P.M.  $38.

Here is a fan review of that gig:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Lu started her tour here in San Diego under a cloudy sky, not a big red sun like in past years. Like last year, Lisa Sanders opened the show with a good set that went way too long (in all fairness, she was told to play a few more songs cause Lu was not ready to come out). It took another 40 minutes or so before Lu and band took the stage. The good news: The sound was great, Lu looked healthy and happy, she played 3 new songs (out of the 20-something she said she has written recently) and the band was a tight as ever. The bad news was that she only played for a little over an hour and did NOT come back for an encore (unheard of at this particular venue). Of the 3 new songs she played, I really liked one called "West" and another called "Knowing," which she said may be the title of her next album. I probably would have liked the ditty called "Come On" (which is an ode to female sexual dissatisfaction) if she hadn't played it twice (the lyric sheet for the last verse went missing first time she played it!), meaning she had to omit another song that was originally on her set list. All in all, not my favorite Lucinda gig (out of the 12 times I have now seen her, this was my least favorite show). But it's still good to have her back.

posted by cowgirlinthesand on 6/16/2005

Here is an article from an Oregon newspaper that came out a few days later:

June 18, 2005
Williams' career shifts into high gear
By Carolyn Lamberson
The Register-Guard

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams is in a pretty good place these days.

OK, maybe not on this particular May day, when she has a telephone interview scheduled. She's stressed out. Her Filofax went missing; her ex-boyfriend and personal assistant was held up at gunpoint the night before in North Hollywood.

Williams asks to call the reporter back later in the day, after she's dealt with the latest crisis and worked out with her trainer.

Sounds like the makings of a Lucinda Williams song.

True to her word, Williams calls back, feeling better after her workout, she said. The Filofax has been recovered and the assistant - newly sober, she added - has decided to head to a meeting.

The woman USA Today once called the "queen of Southern gothic blues-rock twang" calls from her home, a vintage-1960s motel in Burbank, Calif. She finds it comfortable, she said, and likes the convenience of being able to check in and check out.

She hopes it won't be her home for long.

"I started house hunting for a place a couple months ago, but I don't have time to move right now," Williams said. "With the tour launching, I just decided to wait.

"I was maybe going to buy something, but real estate is out of control right now. So I just decided I'm going to hold off."

That tour is the one that will bring her back to Lane County on Tuesday for a show at the Secret House Vineyards in Veneta. She and her band are touring in support of her latest CD, the two-disc "Lucinda Williams: Live at the Fillmore."

"Live at the Fillmore" features Williams and her backing band - Doug Pettibone (guitar), Taras Prodaniuk (bass) and Jim Christie (drums) - burning their way through 22 Williams tunes.

The bulk of the songs come from 2001's "Essence" and 2003's "World Without Tears." >From deep in the Williams catalog comes "Change the Locks," from 1988's "Lucinda Williams," "Piñeola," from 1992's "Sweet Old World" and two from her Grammy-winning "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road": "I Lost It" and "Joy."

She knows it's a mix that will irritate some fans.

"We were out promoting `World Without Tears,' so most of the songs are going to be from that record. That's just the way it goes," she said. "It's really just more like a snapshot of a show, rather than it being retrospective.

"People just have to trust that I put the best stuff on there."

(Fans longing for live versions of older tunes, including "Passionate Kisses" and "I Just Want to See You So Bad," can find them as bonus tracks on iTunes.)

Williams' songs can hurt. That's why fans may be nervous to hear that she is - as mentioned earlier - in a good place right now.

Can a happy Williams pro- duce the kind of poetic songs steeped in longing, fleeting happiness, abuse, addiction, war, religion?

Well, it seems she can. Her new album is in the works, and she's got 20 new songs ready to go, she said.

"I've been in the most prolific period of my entire life," Williams said. "I'm really excited."

She and her band already have recorded rough tracks of the songs. Her fans in Lane County will be among the first to hear some of them.

"We're going to go out and play the songs on the road this summer and let them develop and live with them and go back to the studio at the end of the tour in October and finish the record," Williams said. "I'm excited to see how that all pro- gresses."

Creative pace has picked up

Williams is an artist who puts a lot of care and time into her work. There was a four-year gap between "Lucinda Williams" and its follow-up, "Sweet Old World." Another six years passed before the release of "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road."

The big difference now, Williams said, is that she's working in the studio and writing at the same time, a first for her.

"I would literally write a song the night before and take it in the studio the next day and show it to the guys," she said. "A lot of time, you can come up with really cool tracks just from that because everything is so new and they don't know the song yet."

She still finds demons to write about. Her mother's death in 2004, the end of a serious relationship, another short-lived affair - all are fodder for her new music.

"There's always going to be stuff. It's life," she said. "I write about what's going in my life. And it's always going to be something, something to deal with."

Some things get tucked away, to be unearthed for future songs. Other events make their way to the page quickly.

"My mother's death, I kind of put that away and dealt with it a little bit later, I guess," she said. "The whirlwind affair thing, that was very immediate. I don't know what that was. I was just pumping them out."

She said she's happy with how her career is progressing.

"I actually feel more relaxed with my success. I feel more comfortable with my success now than I ever have because I'm more in control of things.

"I'm in a really good place with everything. I'm on a label (Lost Highway) where I'm in control creatively, completely in control. I can produce my own records if I wanted to.

"I call the shots."

That sense of control is important to Williams, who in her early years struggled to find a place in the corporate music world.

According to her biography on allmusic.com, Williams signed a development deal with CBS in the mid-'80s, only to be released when the label couldn't figure out how to market her. Later, she signed with RCA, but felt too much pressure to release songs that weren't ready.

She signed with Rick Rubin's American Records, which eventually was sold to Mercury. Now she's on Lost Highway - and taking up the cause of other artists she feels are slighted by the industry.

One of her new songs, "Rarities," she calls a "subtle attack" on the industry, inspired by the story of Mia Doi Todd. Todd was picked up by a big label only to be dropped soon afterward. It's a story that Williams finds very familiar.

"That's why I identify with it so much," she said. "And now I'm seeing other artists going through the same thing."

Now, at age 52, Williams said she feels as if she "beat the odds."

"I feel like my career is continuing to progress, which continues to amaze me, because of the age I am and everything," she said. "I've been doing it for so long, you think by now it'd be like you'd sort of hit a plateau.

"But it seems like it's still continuing to grow."

And while many of the pieces of her life are clicking right now, things on a personal level could use some work.

"What's missing right now, probably it would have to be stuff in my personal life," she said. "That's hard to achieve. It's hard to get all the career stuff lined up and also be in a great, satisfying relationship and have all that going great, too.

"That part still isn't really there, but I'm still trying to get there. I'm working on that. I'm just pretty much throwing myself into my career right now and just forging ahead."

Reach Carolyn Lamberson at 338-2341 or clamberson@ guardnet.com.

Lu played Seattle & Vancouver the following week:

New tunes warm up a cool summer night
By Patrick MacDonald
Seattle Times music critic - Sunday, June 26, 2005,

The debut of the new Summer Nights concert site at South Lake Union Park was a breeze Friday night. The feared traffic jams never materialized despite the near sell-out crowd, parking was a snap, and the show went off without a hitch.

The only drawback was the weather, which turned, right at showtime, from sunny and warm to cloudy and windy. The dark, threatening clouds never rained on the event, but those who arrived in shorts and T-shirts were shivering by show's end. Fans who brought hats and coats were cozy, but the smartest concertgoers were the ones with blankets, especially couples snuggled together.

A survey of fans found that most of the complaints were minor, from the confiscation of umbrellas at the entrance to long lines at the coffee bar. Some missed the salt air and dramatic cityscape backdrop of the former site, Pier 62/63 on the Seattle waterfront, which hosted the summer concert series for 13 years, but most found the new venue as inviting, nautical and comfortable as the original.

A variety of boats, from kayaks to yachts, bobbed in the lake at the venue's edge, taking in the music for free. Colorful, decorative flags atop the stage and bleachers whipped in the wind, and strings of lights hanging from trees in the beer garden swayed gently. There are more picnic tables in the expanded beer garden, where ducks and geese cadged bits of food along the shoreline, rather than the seagulls at the pier.

Headliner Lucinda Williams called the site "quite miraculous" and several times thanked the crowd for its enthusiasm, especially those who gathered at the front of the stage and hung on her every word and note.

Williams and her three-piece band played for two hours, right up until the last possible minute as the site neared closing at 11 p.m. As a city park, it must close at the same time as all other Seattle parks.

The edgy, humorous and sometimes bawdy Williams, accompanying herself on guitar, featured three new songs, which showed that her songwriting is sharper and more searing than ever. One of them, "Come On," filled with double entendres as well as outright risqué lyrics, had the fans laughing and cheering. So did "Jailhouse Tears," a twangy, drawling tale of two losers that Williams called a "stone country" song. In contrast was "How to Love," a plaintive, touching ballad of loneliness.

She also performed many of her most popular songs, including "Drunken Angel," a tribute to what she called "beautiful drunks and losers"; "Those Three Days," the bitter story of a short-lived affair; and "Righteously," dealing with the kind of love one seeks but never finds.

John Doe, formerly of the arty punk-rock band X, showed a completely different side as he and his band opened the show with a set of pop and Americana tunes from his new album, "Forever Hasn't Happened Yet," as well as a couple of Beatles covers.

Patrick MacDonald

Here are fan reviews of Seattle & Vancouver:

On Friday night, June 24, Lucinda & the Love Band opened the Seattle Summer Nights concert series, relocated outdoors to South Lake Union Park, while Pier 62/63 is being renovated. The site has a new high, wide stage, with unreserved chairs on a rubberized outdoor floor. In the rear of the chairs are open bleachers, about 10 benches high. Adjoining the seated zone is a large open area with food and sponsor booths, and a beer garden. The weather started sunny and warm, and finished a bit cooler and windy, but no rain. Lucinda started about 9:15 PM and sang 17 songs until the 11 PM curfew. Lucinda included 4 of her 23 new songs--I recommend "Unsuffer Me" and "Come On". The setlist: (1) Ventura; (2) Fruits of My Labor; (3) Lonely Girls; (4) Drunken Angel; (5) Those Three Days; (6) I Lost It; (7) NEW: How to Live; (8) Pineola; (9) NEW: Jailhouse Tears; (10) Out of Touch; (11) Righteously; (12) NEW: Come On; (13) Changed the Locks; (14) Bleeding Fingers; (15) Essence; (16) Joy; (17) Unsuffer Me.--NOTE for future shows at this venue: When Lucinda appeared, folks rushed to stand and dance between the front chairs and the stage; the people who arrived early for "good" seats now had very bad seats. Security remained aloof to the situation, despite verbal altercations between standees and the blocked seated patrons. I found the tensions distracting me from Lucinda, so I took a deep breath, and walked around the venue to observe some songs from the lakefront, the bleachers, and the food zone, before finally returning to the periphery of the dancing area.--Part 2 will discuss Vancouver the following night.

On Saturday night, June 25, Lucinda & the Love Band moved outdoors to Vancouver's Malkin Bowl in beautiful Stanley Park. The venue had reserved plastic chairs set on the grass, with an unseated general area to the right and rear. The weather was clear and warm, turning a bit cool as the evening progressed. Lucinda took stage about 8:20 PM, and eventually played 19 songs until about 10:30 PM--on the way, Lucinda's staff worked with the venue staff to continue playing later than originally deadlined. Halfway through the show, Lucinda encouraged folks to stand and dance in the front area between the chairs and the stage. This seemed to work better than the fiasco in Seattle, partially because of Lucinda's blessing, and partially because the chairs were movable to expand the area. Being primed for this opportunity, I managed a front position between Lucinda and Doug. The setlist: (1) Ventura; (2) Reason to Cry; (3) Drunken Angel; (4) Car Wheels; (5) Pineola; (6) NEW: Jailhouse Tears; (7) I Lost It; (8) Out of Touch; (9) Righteously; (10) NEW: Real Love; (11) Changed the Locks; (12) Essence; (13) Joy; (14) NEW: West; (15) NEW: Unsuffer Me; (16) NEW: What If; (17) NEW: Come On; (18) Lake Charles; (19) Get Right With God.
posted by paul_in_los_angeles

A few days later, Lu played in Denver.  Here are reviews from two papers:

Williams delivers the soulful sounds of heartache
By Candace Horgan - Denver Post - June 30, 2005

Touring in support of her new double-CD "Live at the Fillmore" (recorded in San Francisco, not Denver), Lucinda Williams brought her brand of outlaw country to a sold-out Boulder Theater on Tuesday night.

Williams, clad in a simple black tank and jeans, took the stage to a roar, opening with "Ventura," a track from her most recent studio release, "World Without Tears." Williams' raspy voice soared over her lyrical acoustic guitar while guitarist Doug Pettibone added delicate pedal steel and harmony vocals on the chorus. She followed with "Fruits of My Labor."

Williams' songs often deal with themes of loss. On "Those Three Days," her voice was tinged with heartache and longing as she sang, "Did you love me forever, just for those three days," while Pettibone played a beautiful solo to end the song.

"I Lost It," from the Grammy-winning "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," rocked with soul that most of the so-called country coming out of Nashville only dreams of achieving.

Williams told the audience she has 23 new songs written, ready to be recorded for a new CD, and the new material sparkled.

"How to Live" told of a woman moving on in her life after leaving her lover, while "Words," which she said was a challenge since it had so many lyrics, was hypnotically beautiful, with Williams' voice twining around Pettibone's bluesy fills. Williams thanked the audience, telling them she knew they didn't have the same attachment to the new material as to the old.

Pettibone played a gorgeous, bluesy solo on "Out of Touch," and took a searing long solo after the final chorus. The band then kicked into "Righteously," played at a decidedly more up-tempo pace than the album version, promising a strong finish to the night's music. Williams was still playing into the night as we went to press. Those lucky enough to have tickets to her show tonight at the Botanic Gardens have a memorable time awaiting them.

John Doe opened the show with a well-received set that veered stylistically from the punk-tinged "Highway 5" to an upbeat country-rock cover of Bob Dylan's "She Belongs to Me."

Powerful new material is a winner for Williams
By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News
June 30, 2005

"Lucinda Williams is going to come out," warned opening act John Doe, "and she's going to make you cry!"

He's right - no one can do wistful and heartbroken the way Williams can, and plenty of those songs were included in her short but powerful set.

But in an interview with the News last week, Williams spoke of her desire to write harder songs - ones that address the big picture, world views and the like. She spoke of a new song, What If, that she was particularly proud of.

So while her hits and well-known album cuts were a treat, the highlights of the set ended up being the new material she's working on for the next album. An upbeat rocker, Real Love, seems to hold the promise of even greater commercial breakthrough for the Louisiana native.

But What If was the clear winner of the night. It's a song filled with impossible non sequiturs - what if the Pope chewed gum, what if the president wore pink, what if birds had bank accounts - mixed in with situations that should exist but don't - what if no children went hungry, what if everyone had love.

Its execution could be mawkish and awkward in lesser hands, but Williams made it work. "Put it on the album!" someone yelled out at its conclusion.

Williams and her crack band made jokes about her darker material but took songs like Out of Touch and Joy and packed them with enough growling guitar solos to put the crowd in an upbeat mood despite the heartache in the songs.

Given the loose outdoor setting of the Botanic Gardens, Williams picked songs quite different from her Paramount Theatre show a few years back. In that controlled setting, she was able to pull out delicate songs such as Blue and Steal Your Love that kept the crowd rapt.

The Gardens crowd was respectful but loose, warming up quickly to the downbeat openers Ventura and Reason to Cry, but soon after that, Williams floored it and never looked back. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, the uproarious Changed the Locks and the main- set closer Joy had the crowd grooving along.

With just a couple exceptions, the songs were taken from her most recent albums - World Without Tears, Essence and Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. The new material showed that her strong writing streak isn't anywhere near an end.

Copyright 2005, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.

Before Lu's gig in Lincoln, Nebraska, the local paper had this article:

Lucinda Williams to rock at Rococo
By L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / Lincoln Journal Star, July 1, 2005

Three years ago, almost to the day, Lucinda Williams made her first Lincoln appearance, delivering an intense, hard-rocking performance that previewed the songs that would be released on 2003's "World Without Tears."

Friday night, July 1, Williams will return to the Rococo Theatre, touring to promote "Live at the Fillmore," a two-CD set that likely contains much of what will be heard on the Rococo stage.

Put together from three nights in November 2003 at The Fillmore, the set contains 22 songs, including almost all of "World Without Tears," and captures Williams and her three-piece band in fine form. That makes it a rarity — a live album that's worth hearing more than once.

"I was trying to put something together that I'd want to listen to myself," Williams told the Rocky Mountain News in a rare interview on this tour. "I don't listen to live records, for two reasons: There's just too much talking going on, or it just doesn't sound good because of the way it was recorded. Those were two things I was trying to make sure weren't going to happen."

Combined with "Live from Austin, Texas," a new DVD of her Dec. 5, 1998, "Austin City Limits" concert, "Live at the Fillmore" provides a snapshot of Williams' evolution as an artist.

The Austin show was recorded when "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," the album that catapulted her through a combination of critical acclaim, record sales and concert success to far greater visibility than she had previously received, came out.

Accompanied by a six-piece band, including songwriter Jim Lauderdale on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, Williams rambles through a 75-minute set that showcases that record along with earlier favorites like "Sweet Old World," "Passionate Kisses" and "Something About What Happens When We Talk."

The music is, largely, country/folk based. It rocks a little, but it's primarily rootsy singer/songwriter stuff, showcasing the lyrics that have earned Williams a place in the pantheon of great contemporary songwriters — along with Bob Dylan, John Prine, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Elvis Costello, who compares her directness to that of Hank Williams.

In contrast, "Live at the Fillmore" is a rock-rooted record, with songs like "Joy" snarling and driving rather than progressing on a simple groove and "Changed the Locks" moving from a quiet song of resignation into a powerful anthem. Those songs and "Pineola" are the only tunes found on both the live album and DVD.

That's a sign not only of how dramatically Williams' set list has shifted but of how she perceives her music. Older songs such as "Passionate Kisses" and "I Just Want to See You So Bad" were left off the live album because Williams felt they didn't fit.

That rock 'n' roll feel was evident when I heard Williams preview "World Without Tears" twice in 2003 and continued when she and her band played a brilliant show last year at Kansas City's Beaumont Club.

Williams, who went for years between albums in the '80s and '90s, is already back in the studio, producing her forthcoming record. But she and the band, guitarist Doug Pettibone, bass player Taras Podaniuk and drummer Jim Christie, are taking some time off to do some shows and road test some of the songs they're about to record.

"I have enough songs for two albums," Williams told the Rocky Mountain News. "A lot of people are asking me if I'm going to put out a double CD. I'm thinking I'm probably not going to. I don't want to overdo it with too many songs. So I'm throwing them out there, getting feedback on some of the songs."

So, in many ways, tonight's Rococo show will be deja vu all over again. And when it's coming from Williams, that's a very good thing.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.

If you go

What: Lucinda Williams with John Doe

Where: Rococo Theatre. 140 N. 13th St.

When: 8 p.m. Friday, July 1

Here is a brief review of Lu's gig in Milwaukee:

Summerfest review: Lucinda Williams
Posted: July 4, 2005

If there can be such a thing, Lucinda Williams is romantic fatalist.

As she demonstrated again Sunday night at the Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard Featuring the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Miller High Life, Williams seems to be on a constant quest for relational fulfillment that she never quite seems able to believe is within reach. Perhaps for that reason she has the paradoxical quality of seeming both brittle and tender at the same time.

Williams opened her set with one of her best known tunes, "Drunken Angel." That sense of softness and flint was juxtaposed within there too. On the one hand, the song celebrates the humanity and beauty of its fallen subject without ever romanticizing the senseless waste of life and talent.

She delivered her songs with a kind of weariness that suggested a woman used to disappointment but somehow still unable to surrender the dream. To be honest, I wasn't sure how well she would translate in the rowdy atmosphere of Summerfest. She isn't the most demonstrative of stage performers, and there's a nuance to her work that doesn't necessarily scream beer party.

Fortunately, the Big Backyard was full of fans who seemed to know and appreciate what they were hearing.

- Dave Tianen, Journal Sentinel staff

On July 12, Lucinda played The Opera House in Boston.  My wife & I were in the audience & we witnessed one of the best Lucinda  shows we've ever seen.  Lu was as upbeat & happy as we've ever seen her, and the audience loved her.  The sound system was fabulous, and she played a number of her 24 new songs.  Here is the two-hour set-list: Ventura / Fruits of My Labor / How To Live (new) / Drunken Angel / Car Wheels On A Gravel Road / Jailhouse Tears (new) / Pineola / What If (new) / Out Of Touch / Righteously / Changed The Locks / C'mon (new) / Essence / Joy / Side Of The Road / Where Is My Love (new) / Right In Time / West (new) / Lake Charles.

The new songs were wonderful & well-received. We had a nice visit with Lu after the show, and we learned that her European tour was cancelled due to the terrorism in London & Lu said that hopefully they would go at a later date.  She also said a new studio album would probably be released early next year.

Both Boston newspapers raved about the concert. Here is the Boston Herald review:

Williams splendid at renovated Opera House
By Sarah Rodman, Boston Herald
Wednesday, July 13, 2005

If anyone wants to know how the newly renovated Opera House sounds as a concert venue, just ask an elated Lucinda Williams.
Last night, the beloved alt-country rocker declared the Downtown Crossing landmark's sound to be ``so good it's scary'' after just the second song in what was a splendid two-hour-plus performance.

Indeed, even from the last row of the second balcony the sound was clear - if a little bass heavy - and the sightlines were a dream.

Everyone from the capacity crowd - seated cheerfully in the comfy seats - to the ushers agreed, as a buzz about the crisp acoustics was audible during the uncharacteristically brief intermission between spirited opener Ana Egge and Williams.

``This has to be the best sound I've ever had,'' Williams declared, adding a little fearfully, ``It's daunting.''

She needn't have worried. Williams and her razor-sharp trio, with its nuanced and inventive instrumentation, were more than worthy of being the first rock act to set foot in the ultra-classy joint in close to 15 years.

The 52-year-old Louisiana native didn't let the proper gilt-edged surroundings and regal red curtain mute any of her rougher edges, however. Instead, she let rip with a set brimming with greasy, twangy rock songs replete with f-bombs, raw nerves and plenty of sex and drugs, counterbalanced nicely with languid ballads of longing and heartache.

Peering at her songbook on a music stand - seemingly more for reassurance than actual assistance - a chipper Williams began the evening with the dreamy ``Ventura'' with guitarist Doug Pettibone providing warm harmony vocals.

Visibly and admittedly happy, Williams seemed just as jazzed with her ``love band'' as the audience. She stepped back to admire Pettibone's economical and fiery solos on songs like the grab-you-by-the-collar rocker ``Changed the Locks,'' bassist Taras Prodaniuk's snaky insinuations on ``Car Wheels on a Gravel Road'' and the talents of multitasking drummer Jim Christie, who often swung a stick in one hand while working a tambourine, shaker, mallet or hot rod in the other.

The vociferous audience generously encouraged Williams to test out new material. The half-dozen fresh tracks earned their spots in her repertoire even if a few of the quieter ones gave the encore a too-sleepy tone.

The best of the new included the lemonade-from-lemons break-up song ``How I Live,'' the jazzy ``Where Is My Love'' and the sassy kiss-off ``Come On,'' in which Williams' castigated an ex for not satisfying her over an impatient, stomping groove.

Williams also spoke glowingly of Egge, who drew a good response for  her thoughtful singer-songwriter fare.

Here is the Boston Globe review:

Happy, steady, chatty Williams brings down the Opera House
By Renee Graham, Globe Staff  |  July 13, 2005

Several songs into her set last night, Lucinda Williams told her adoring audience, ''I feel so happy today -- count your blessings, I feel happy today. It doesn't happen every day, but today is a good day."

And, she had a very good night at the Opera House. Throughout her much-acclaimed, Grammy-winning career, Williams has garnered something of a reputation for occasionally erratic, even indifferent live performances. But there was no such static in her generous, 90-plus minute show, which found Williams in solid voice, and an even better mood.

It couldn't have hurt that she received a standing ovation before singing a single note. She opened the show with ''Ventura," from her most recent studio album, 2003's ''World Without Tears," in which Williams asks to ''get swallowed up in an ocean of love." That ocean was the near-sellout crowd, which clapped, sang along, or just hooted their appreciation all night.

''This is the best sound I've ever had," Williams said after the song, referring to the acoustics in the spectacularly restored Opera House. ''It's riveting, it's daunting. It sounds so good, it's scary."

Williams was very chatty throughout the concert, but never at the expense of her music. Backed by her longtime three-piece band -- guitarist Doug Pettibone, bassist Taras Prodaniuk, and drummer Jim Christie -- Williams played favorites like ''Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" and ''Drunken Angel." Yet she also offered several new songs, including ''Jailhouse Tears," one of the evening's standouts. Describing the song as ''stone country" in the old-school style of George Jones and Tammy Wynette, it was a gorgeously twangy thing about a hard life of six-packs, stolen trucks, and lousy men who wind up behind bars.

''It's sad, but a lot of people relate to that song," Williams told the crowd, and added that the tune was ''based on a true story." Also inspired by real events, she said, is the aching ''Pineola," about the suicide of a young man.

Despite some of her song topics, Williams and her band also played some blistering good and loud rock such as ''Out of Touch." She even took a moment to clarify ''Righteously," which some have mistook as Williams's attempt to make a rap song. Comparing the spoken-word song to Gil Scott-Heron's classic, ''The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," Williams called the song, ''a beat-poet thing."

The last show of the July portion of the tour was at the Beacon Theater in New York City.  Here's is Newsday's review:

Lucinda Williams on the playful side
BY GLENN GAMBOA
STAFF WRITER, Newsday

July 16, 2005

Lucinda Williams fans know the drill: When she's working on an album, she likes to tour to try out some of her new songs.

"I know you don't have the emotional attachment to the new songs," Williams said late in her 100-minute set at the sold-out Beacon Theatre Thursday night. "But I get so excited about them."

And why shouldn't she? The half-dozen new songs she tested - of about 23 she has completed for her next album - were all worthy of her already impressive catalog of Americana classics. They also offer insights into her current musical direction, which seems to be more upbeat and playful than 2003's excellent but dark "World Without Tears."

"We feel good tonight," she said, introducing the straightforward rocker "How I Live." "I'm happy," she added.

She followed that with "Real Love," which shows that the interest in Paul Westerberg-styled rock she cultivated with the last album's "Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings" hasn't died down.

Her "socio-political-spiritual song," "What If," is an acoustic hoot - a string of stream-of-consciousness hypotheticals that include "What if the president wore pink or if a prostitute were queen?" and "What if the pope chewed gum?" "What If" is also overflowing with images of bleeding skies and water-walking cats.

Williams remained playful with "Come On," an '80s-drenched, power-chord kiss-off to an unsatisfying lover. It was yet another chance for her excellent longtime backing band - guitarist Doug Pettibone, bassist Taras Prodaniuk and drummer Jim Christie - now nicknamed The Love Band, to shine.

Of course, to keep the crowd happy, Williams surrounded her new songs with great versions of standouts, such as "Drunken Angel," "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" and "Essence."

But all of that paled to the lightning-in-a-bottle moment, when the combustible Williams met the fiery Elvis Costello for "Changed the Locks" - a rare opportunity to watch two masters feed off each other's energy. Costello sang at the top of his register, frothing like an angry young man, while Williams matched him, spitting out ferocious, twanging, drawn-out notes.

With her sharp, pointed vocals, opener Tara Angell travels a gravel-voiced road similar to Williams but takes listeners in an entirely different direction. Angell's songs are more open-ended, both sonically and lyrically.

"When You Find Me" and "Untrue," from her debut album "Come Down," simply hang in the air, all echoing guitars and eerie organ sounds that make it sound as if a David Lynch movie were going to break out onstage - with only Angell's unique voice to pull listeners through.

While Williams packs her songs with compelling details that unfold like a novel, Angell's songs are more circular, allowing the repetition of her choruses and guitar riffs to make her point.

Both approaches work, though Angell has a ways to go before she can match Williams' mastery. And judging from Williams' new songs, that mastery hasn't peaked yet.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS. Road-testing another powerful pack of future standards. With special appearances by Elvis Costello and opener Tara Angell. At the Beacon Theatre Thursday.

Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.

The European segment of the tour was supposed to take place the last two weeks of July, but it was cancelled or postponed.  Lucinda will appear next on the David Letterman TV show on August 3rd, where she is scheduled to sing "Changed The Locks."  Her tour will continue the next night in Philadelphia.

In addition to the "Live At The Fillmore" audio release, a new DVD has been issued of Lucinda's appearance on Austin City Limits from December 5, 1998.  This is the entire taped performance which runs 74 minutes, instead of the half-hour segment containing only five songs that was aired on the TV show.  Here is Amazon.com's review of the DVD:

Lucinda Williams - Live from Austin, TX

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
A thrilling and often beautiful concert sitting unseen in a vault for a number of years, Lucinda Williams: Live from Austin, TX is the Louisiana-born singer-songwriter's complete, pre-edited performance from a 1998 appearance on Austin City Limits. With its 16 well-chosen songs, largely culled from Williams's most rewarding material since the 1980s, Live is indispensable for longtime fans and a great introduction to her unique artistry for the uninitiated. Williams's deceptively plain-spoken, sometimes conversational lyrics about losses and passages and elusive touchstones of happiness are marvels of instant resonance, transcending minimalist imagery and fragmentary refrains. Surrounded by a small, guitar army and sometimes hypnotic rhythm section, Williams fills out "Metal Firecracker" with a vintage folk-rock sound, raises the extraordinary "Drunken Angel" and "Greenville" to new heights, and delivers--with a voice as lovely as a bell--a stirring performance on "Sweet Old World." Lest we forget her appreciation of the Doors, "Joy" brings the show to a head with its gritty, shamanic blues and evocative promises ("I'm gonna go to West Memphis and find my joy") that make one want to jump with excitement. --Tom Keogh

Description
Track Listing
1 – Pineola
2 – Metal Firecracker
3 – Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
4 – Right In Time
5 – Drunken Angel
6 – Greenville
7 – Lake Charles
8 – Changed The Locks
9 – Joy
10 – Disgusted
11 – Jackson
12 – Sweet Old World
13 – Passionate Kisses
14 – Something About What Happens When We Talk
15 – Still I long For Your Kiss
16 – Can’t Let Go

Amazon also reviews the new live audio release:

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Few artists take the sort of emotional risks that Lucinda Williams does. Pouring her all into songs of hurt, need, and desire, she turns every live performance into an adventure, as the first concert recording of her career attests. Coproduced by Williams, Live at the Fillmore showcases her raw wound of a voice and the rough edges of her band in all their unvarnished glory, as the music cuts across conventional categories of country, blues, folk, rock (and rap) to strike a distinctly personal chord. Even the pacing is risky. Whereas most artists plan their sets to hit hardest at the beginning and end, Williams inverts the dynamic, sustaining a mood of reflective melancholy for extended stretches that open and close the album, while building to an explosive climax in the middle. With the selection dominated by recent material, the first eight numbers are like a sweet ache, as the wistful country of "Ventura" and "Reason to Cry" and the folkish minimalism of "Lonely Girls" explore the fringes of emotional fragility. Then Williams and band flex their musical muscles, shifting into the bluesier side of her artistry on "Change the Locks" and "Atonement," extending the desperate intensity of "Joy" over almost eight minutes, and offering homage to Neil Young's Crazy Horse on "Righteously" and "Essence." Backed by the barbed-wire guitar of Doug Pettitbone over the bare-bones rhythms of bassist Taras Prodaniuk and drummer Jim Christie, Williams tells the crowd, "We got the mojo workin' tonight." --Don McLeese

Here are a few more reviews of the new live release:

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
This Week's Hot CD: Lucinda Williams' 'Live a@ the Fillmore'
Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Live @ the Fillmore (Lost Highway)

Anyone who has attended a Lucinda Williams concert has heard the fury of a woman scorned. This double CD, recorded over three days at the Fillmore West in November 2003, runs the gantlet of emotional aerobics.

The 22 tracks come mostly from her last two albums, "Essence" and "World Without Tears." The latter was the first time she recorded with her touring band, Doug Pettibone (guitar, lap steel, mandolin, harmonica), Jim Christie (keyboards, drums) and Taras Prodaniak (bass), so those tracks are close to the originals.

The material from "Essence," however, is a revelation. On the sweetly produced subtleties of the studio versions, Williams was a wounded songbird. Here she is a raging, rasping volcano. Sorrow, exhaustion, and anger infuse the country rap of "Sweet Side" and "American Dream," the punk snarl of "Joy" and the boozy dirges of "Reason to Cry" and "Lonely Girls." (Bill White)

GRADE: B+

Williams' songwriting has improved with age
By JON M. GILBERTSON
Special to the  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Posted: July 3, 2005

In theory, a live album differs from a studio album in the same way a wild horse differs from a show pony.

Yet country-inclined, rock-catalyzed singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams discovered, while listening back to tapes of the performances that would eventually become "Live @ the Fillmore," that a horse of any color benefits from taming - or at least from a little grooming.

"We did capture our stuff, but at first it sounded so rough that I wasn't sure if I had anything worth putting out," Williams said.

"On some of the tracks, you could barely hear the rhythm section, and other things were buried. Some live albums are done like that, where they pretty much record it and let it go, but I'm not interested in listening to that kind of stuff more than once. I made an effort."

To make something more listenable by her standards, Williams selected tracks from a three-night stand in November 2003 at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore and enlisted engineer Michael Dumas to mix those tracks. The results, spread across two discs, catch both the nerve-scraping raw intensity and the butter-smooth session-man professionalism of Williams and her band: multi-instrumentalist Doug Pettibone, bassist Taras Prodaniuk and drummer Jim Christie.

"I've been playing with this band over the last two or three years, and a lot of people said we needed to make a live record," Williams said. "We were getting such great, amazing feedback on the shows. It seemed like the right time, and I had more confidence about doing it right now - confidence in the band, in the performance and in myself."

For her, greater confidence has been a long time coming, as has greater commercial success.

Although the sets from which she culled "Live @ the Fillmore" feature older songs, such as "Changed the Locks" and "Pineola," they also draw heavily upon the high-profile creative renaissance that began with "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" in 1998 and continued through "Essence" in 2001 and "World Without Tears" in 2003. This bias toward her mature phase is quite intentional.

"It's obvious that my stuff now is better than it was when I was 23," Williams said. "I'm 52, and I don't even feel that I've reached my peak yet."

Although she's not necessarily one to name-drop - an impressive quality from someone who's been a powerful presence on almost as many albums as Emmylou Harris - Williams further made her case by adducing an encounter with The Boss.

"I was recently talking to Bruce Springsteen after he played a solo show in L.A.," she said. "He did 'Reno,' one of the most incredibly beautiful, melodic, erotic songs I've ever heard. After the show, I said, 'Not everybody can pull off a song like that.' He said, 'I never would've been able to write that song 20 years ago.' And I knew exactly what he meant. I've been experiencing the same kind of thing."

Experience certainly has a lot to do with it. Like Billie Holiday, Williams has used and adapted to the passage of time to become a more convincing, more heartbreaking and, above all, more soulful singer.

Matched with the increasingly humid intimacy of her songwriting and the chances she's been willing to take (name another performer capable of blending hip-hop and country, as she did with "Righteously"), her honey-and-gravel voice has put her in the first rank of modern songwriters, including Springsteen, Steve Earle and Elvis Costello. Unlike those guys, though, she needed time - a thing not often granted in the youth-obsessed pop culture.

"There are kids now trying to rush," Williams said. "I'm like: 'Slow down. Go out and hone your craft.'

"I lean more toward the school of thought in the blues and jazz world, where you get better with age. It never occurred to me not to keep going."

The latest issue of Maverick magazine dated July 2005 has a cover story on Lucinda.  This is a U.K. publication which can be ordered online from the publisher.  The website is www.maverick-country.com

Last year a wonderful book came out titled "Sing My Way Home" by Keith & Kent Zimmerman.  There is an entire chapter on Lucinda which includes an in-depth interview.  There are chapters & photos of many other musicians including Gram Parsons, Steve Earle, Ryan Adams, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore & many more.  Excellent reading!  Book is available from Amazon.com and other outlets.