Tunes Tuesday: Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams. Photo by Mark Seliger.

Regarding her feelings towards the state of the world, Lucinda Williams is as mortified as anyone. The Grammy Award winning singer songwriter put that anger and worry into an album, fittingly titled “Worlds Gone Wrong,” which she released in early 2026. The album, mixed by frequent collaborator Ray Kennedy, is a protest album with lyrics articulating feelings of hope and despair while covering issues of race, poverty and struggle in the United States currently. Ahead of her performance in Providence at the Uptown Theater on October 7^th, Williams chatted with us about the album and what keeps her constantly creating new music.

You’ve performed here in the past when it was called the Columbus Theatre, how does it feel to return?

It feels great! We were actually just talking about this because I was trying to remember if I’d played there before, because I remembered being in Providence. It’s a beautiful theater.

You’ve said in past interviews that your singing is better now after your stroke but not your guitar playing. How have your live shows changed since the stroke?

 Fortunately, I have a great band right now, so they’ve kind of taken the place of my guitar. I rely on them to back me up in the songs and it works great so that hasn’t suffered at all. That’s one reason why I’m probably singing better, because I don’t have to worry about the guitar and stuff. I just stand there and sing and the bands there to back me up.

Ray Kennedy does the mixing on this album and has on the last two albums of yours too. What about Ray and his producing and mixing keeps that working relationship going?

 I started with him when I was working on Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. He’s worked with Steve Earl for a long, long time and produced and mixed a bunch of Steve’s records. At the time I was living in Nashville and Ray was here and Steve was here and Steve was recording one of his albums and he had that song, You’re Still Standing There that he was recording at the time. He asked me to come in and sing on it and that’s how I met Ray. I remember just really loving the way Steve’s record was sounded when I went in there. I was having some problems with the Car Wheels record with some of the songs I wasn’t happy with that we had recorded and I really love the sound that Ray was getting on Steve’s record. I ended up going back in and re-cutting some of the songs and that’s how I got involved with him.

What does he bring to your albums?

He’s really good at recording the vocals. I think we were listening to some stuff last night in fact, and I mentioned that I really liked the way the vocals sounded and that’s what I liked about Steve’s record when I first heard it too. Everything just sounds pretty organic and natural. It’s not overly slick or overly produced.

The title of the album you’re touring for is Worlds Gone Wrong. What do you think has made the world go so wrong?

Well, I mean, we have a tyrant in the White House. I’m not sure how that occurred but too many people voted the wrong way. It took a while for it to get to this point. I think people just weren’t paying enough attention and didn’t think it mattered and look what happened.

 Was that the inspiration to create a protest album like this?

Yes, I’ve also been wanting to do songs like this for a while. I used to love the songs that Bob Dylan wrote that were great topical songs or protest songs. He was just so good at it. This was really my attempt at writing those kinds of songs. They’re hard for me to write because I don’t want to make them sound too flowery or corny.

You had a harder time writing this album than your others?

These kinds of songs were always a challenge to try and write before. One thing that make it easier was I started co-writing with my husband and manager Tom. It turns out he had been into creative writing way before we met when he was in school. He started writing out some lyrics and handing them to me to look at and you know I was a little worried that I wouldn’t like them if I’m being honest. Then I looked at them and started reading through them and thought, wow these are actually pretty good. I would take some of his ideas and his lyrics and do some editing on them and then come up with an arrangement and a melody and lo and behold, we ended up with a handful of good songs. It was surprising but fun and felt real natural and organic.

Who do you think needs to hear this album?

Everybody who voted for Trump.

 If you could tell someone to listen to one song on the album, what song would it be?

I like the one that’s called How Much Should You Get for your Soul. I like the music and arrangement of that one a lot. It sounds like a happy little pop song but the words are a lot deeper and more serious. The other one would be We’ve Come Too Far to Turn Around. That was written more for people who have been working towards social justice and peace and everything for a long time.

 There’s a cover on your album of so much trouble in the world which features Mavis Staples. Why was that an important song to include on the album?

It speaks volumes to what’s going on. It’s still a real timely song. It’s kind of almost ahead of its time when Bob Marley wrote and recorded it. Tom suggested it because it fits so well with the other songs. Mavis was available and we got her to put some vocal stuff on it as long as she can do. That was just the final stroke of color for the song. Her voice and vocals on there, she’s such a big inspiration. The Staple Singers really inspired me. The song We’ve Come Too Far to Turn Around was influenced and inspired by some of their songs that I heard back in the 60s.

Was it crazy to be working with her, seeing that she inspired you so much?

It was great. We’ve become friends over the years after finding ourselves at the same music festivals. She’s one of those super friendly people who you feel like you’ve known forever. She knew I was a real Bob Dylan fan, so she always has to remind me and whoever else is there to listen that Bob asked her to marry him at one point. She’s adorable. She looks really good too; her skin is super smooth. She’s just really young at heart and she’s not cynical or jaded.

This is your 16th studio album. How do you keep coming up with new material and what’s your process like to complete an album?

Tom is the business part of everything and he’ll talk to whoever the people are who are going to put the record out so he knows when its time to get back in the studio and get something recorded. The process is usually pretty organic. As long as I’m still writing and coming up with new material, we do just fine. I just write all the time anyway and so does he. When we’re lucky, it doesn’t feel forced. That’s when the co-writing comes in handy because I might not be coming up with stuff but then Tom will and then I jump into it and get involved in that and it kind of spurs me on.

How do you guys manage a working relationship while also being married?

It has its ups and downs just like any couple in a long-term relationship. It takes a lot of work and discipline. We tell each other we love each other every night before we got to sleep and every day when we both get up. Somebody told me a long time ago, don’t ever go to bed angry. It just forces you to knock that other stuff out of your brain for a little bit and remind each other how you feel.

Get tickets to the show by clicking the link here.