Three-Time Grammy Winner Lucinda Williams

Performs at Mountain Laurel Center

on Tuesday, July 24, at 7:30 p.m.

Eclectic Singer-Songwriter Has Another Hit With Her Latest CD, West

BUSHKILL, PA – Three-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams will perform at Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts (MLCPA) on Tuesday, July 24 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets, ranging from $25 to $45 for the pavilion, and only $20 for lawn seating, are on sale now via Ticketmaster at 570.693.4100, through Ticketmaster outlets, online at mountainlaurelcenter.com, or by visiting MLCPA’s on-site box office.

“Lucinda Williams is a brilliant composer and singer who constantly stretches the boundaries of each genre she works in, from country to folk to blues and rock,” said Richard T. Bryant, President and CEO of Mountain Laurel Center. “She epitomizes the kind of compelling, critically acclaimed artistry that MLCPA aims to bring to our audiences.”

Lucinda Williams first burst into mainstream consciousness in 1998 with her crossover hit “Still I Long for Your Kiss,” from the motion picture The Horse Whisperer, which was included on her smash album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. But she’d been around the music business for a long time before that. Back in 1979 and 1980, she released her first albums, the strummed-acoustic Ramblin’ and Happy Woman Blues, and began to gather a small but devoted following. She was known even back then as a musician’s musician, a singer’s singer, and the critical accolades followed – but a breakout hit song eluded her for many years. Part of this was due to her legendary perfectionism – she released albums only infrequently, often taking years to hone the material, and her early works were released only on smaller labels that agreed to her insistence on creative control.

Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1953, Williams discovered folk music through her mother and poetry through her father, a literature professor and published poet. He also passed on to her his love of Delta blues and country legend Hank Williams. Lucinda’s first musical heroine was Joan Baez, but she was galvanized into trying her own hand at songwriting and singing after hearing Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited. As the child of a college professor, she was also immersed in the ’60s campus folk-rock environment, surrounded by the sounds and influence of such performers as Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. She began her career by singing folk songs at various venues in New Orleans, and later relocating to Austin, Texas, where she became a part of that city’s burgeoning roots music scene.

A demo tape won her the chance to record 1979’s rootsy Ramblin’, a selection of traditional country, blues, folk and Cajun songs, for the Smithsonian Folkways label. Happy Woman Blues, her first album of original compositions, followed in 1980. She moved to Los Angeles in 1984 and began to attract major-label interest, but passed on them all until finally signing with the punk label Rough Trade, for which she recorded 1988’s Lucinda Williams, a critical favorite. The album, however, was so eclectic it was almost impossible for the label to market it effectively; its combination of folk, roots, country, blues and rock didn’t fit neatly into any radio format.

It was another four years before Williams issued a follow-up album, Sweet Old World, in 1992. The record won critical raves once again, and Williams embarked on a tour with Roseanne Cash and Mary-Chapin Carpenter. Carpenter recorded Williams’ song “Passionate Kisses,” which shot to country music’s Top Five in 1993 and won Williams a Grammy Award for Country Song of the Year. Other top artists, including Emmylou Harris and Tom Petty, began mining Williams’ song catalog, and the industry buzz around the singer-songwriter continued to grow.

Williams released her next album, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, in 1998 on a major label, Mercury Records. Featuring a bright country-rock-blues sound, Car Wheels won universal acclaim and ended up on many critics’ Best Of lists that year. The album was further boosted by an extensive profile of Williams in The New Yorker (which won its author, Bill Buford, a National Magazine Award) and the fact that the single “Still I Long for Your Kiss” was featured in the Robert Redford movie The Horse Whisperer. A Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album capped off that particular run of success.

Williams’ next album, Essence, in 2001, led to her third Grammy Award: Best Female Rock Vocal for the gospel-inflected “Get Right With God.”  2003’s World Without Tears was her highest-charting album to date, debuting in the Billboard Top 20. A pair of live albums followed in 2005. 

Her newest CD, West, was released Feb. 13, 2007 on Lost Highways Records and has won critical plaudits from such major sources as Rolling Stone, People, Entertainment Weekly, Vanity Fair, the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. Written in the aftermath of a tempestuous relationship, the death of her mother and a cross-country move, West speaks to the depth and breadth of Williams’ artistry even in the midst of turmoil. “Lucinda writes about lust, love and loss like nobody else,” said Vanity Fair, while Spin summed it up succinctly: “Pure, golden brilliance.”

MOUNTAIN LAUREL CENTER 2007 PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

All events will be presented in the Tom Ridge Pavilion.

TUESDAY, JULY 24, 7:30 p.m.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS

Plus special guest Charlie Louvin

Inside reserved seating: $25-$45. Lawn seating: $20.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 8 p.m.

LINDA RONSTADT

Inside reserved seating: $32-$52. Lawn seating: $22.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 11 a.m.

THE LAURIE BERKNER BAND with Susie Lampert & Adam Bernstein

Inside reserved seating: $25-$35. Lawn seating: $18.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 7:30 p.m.

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND

BOB WEIR AND RATDOG

Inside reserved seating: $45-$65. Lawn seating: $25.

MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 8 p.m.

BOSTON POPS ESPLANADE ORCHESTRA

Keith Lockhart, Conductor

Inside reserved seating: $45-$65. Lawn seating: $25.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 8 p.m.

Neil Berg’s 100 YEARS OF BROADWAY

Inside reserved seating: $25-$45. Lawn seating: $20.

Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts is a nonprofit performing arts center serving the Pocono Mountains and beyond. Its principal venue, the Tom Ridge Pavilion, offers 2,500 covered seats and room under the stars for thousands more on its comfortable lawn. MLCPA is dedicated to serving the region by providing world-class artists and entertainers through an ongoing series of performances and educational programming. For additional information about the Mountain Laurel Center, please call 570-426-2080 or visit mountainlaurelcenter.com.

For ticket prices, ordering, Harry’s Club membership and general information, the public can visit www.mountainlaurelcenter.com or call 570.426.2080.

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Contact
CJ McKenna
Development Manager
Direct: 570.426.2080 x5007
Email: cmckenna@mlcpa.org
Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts
Bushkill Falls Road P.O. Box 1233
Bushkill, PA 18324
Administration: 570.426.2080
Fax: 570.588.5211
mountainlaurelcenter.com