Lucinda Williams in concert at The Vets – Stories and Songs from a remarkable career

Stories and songs took center stage on Friday, November 15 when Grammy Award-winning artist Lucinda Williams and her band took the stage at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence, RI.

Williams was in town for a stop on her “Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets” show, a career retrospective, featuring songs, stories, still photos, and video from her 2023 book of the same name. Those stories serve as a road trip through her life, a musical scrapbook of her childhood, life on the road, raw challenges, and eventual success as a female musician making it in a male-dominated world.

Williams, who suffered a stroke in 2020, no longer plays guitar in concert, but her voice is as strong as ever, both literal and figurative. Her pulsating vibrato was front and center at the Providence show, supported by one of the tightest bands touring anywhere. Friday’s show was a superb performance from an artist who continues to challenge and inspire.

Williams’ lyrics paint a compelling picture; she is known to work on many of her songs for years, and the intention of those words comes through time and again. Growing up, her yardstick was Bob Dylan, and songs like “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” the title song from her 1998 Grammy-winning masterpiece, certainly reach that level. “Sittin’ in the kitchen, a house in Macon/Loretta’s singing on the radio/Smell of coffee, eggs, and bacon/Car wheels on a gravel road.”

Mentored by her father, a noted poet, she understands narrative; she knows how to tell a story and paint a picture with words. Songs like “Drunken Angel,” “Lake Charles,” and “Ghosts of Highway 20,” among others, are prime examples. This concert served as a master class in songwriting.

Check out some photos of the show from WUN Lifestyle Editor Ken Abrams below.