The lack of routine is treating Williams well. Her new album, Good Souls Better Angels, released last month, is her most electrifying record in years, and sprang up spontaneously during some downtime in Nashville. In between tours, she visited the studio of Ray Kennedy, who engineered her 1998 masterpiece, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, and found herself inspired to record some songs she had written. Surrounded by her longtime band of guitarist Stuart Mathis, bassist David Sutton, and drummer Butch Norton, and with Kennedy’s cache of vintage gear at her disposal, she reacquainted herself with unbridled rock & roll.

Just saw Lucinda Williams for the first time last night in Denver. She was pretty good, the band was very tight, but Stuart is a monster. Incredible tone… bold, and unapologetic playing… Loud and right there as a feature, even when blending in. Every note seemed intentional and well thought out… and a contribution to the overall sound of the song. Very inspiring.

But life is a series of balances, and luckily for Williams, she had a secret weapon that pretty much nullified the distraction of the binder reliance: her band.
They were damned spectacular. In fact, if Williams continues touring with the same unit — Wallflowers guitarist Stuart Mathis and her long-time rhythm section David Sutton on bass and Butch Norton on drums — she should bill them as The Damned Spectacular, because they were nothing short of mesmerizing, elevating the Massey show to a level beyond reprieve.
Sutton and Norton are a tightly disciplined, in-the-pocket tandem that fill in so many holes with just the right notes that it makes Williams look like a certified genius for hiring them.
This was particularly noticeable on “Unsuffer Me,” where Norton slowed the song and maintained it at a restrained yet powerful enough pace — with Sutton adding intermittent notes that gave the arrangement room to breathe — to allow Mathis to cut through the air with laser-like riffs on his electric guitar.
And Mathis was no slouch either when it came to applying his own sonic paintbrush in terms of enlivening Williams’ tunes: he added great grit to “Essence,” strong pathos to “Changed the Locks” and shone with pretty much every note he played.

That song’s hook isn’t especially clever, and the politics aren’t for everybody. The starring role, though, goes to Williams’ spectacular band. Guitarist Stuart Mathis, bassist David Sutton and drummer Butch Norton jam out as Williams repeatedly shouts, ‘œIt’s coming down.’ Comparisons are risky, but the playing evokes Neil Young of ‘œ Like a Hurricane’ vintage.

It turns out Lucinda Williams was just getting started when the veteran singer-songwriter rolled out “Man Without a Soul,” the first missive from her upcoming album Good Souls Better Angels.
That roiling, simmering track, the first new song she’d unveiled in four years, clearly took aim at the current White House occupant (“without dignity and grace,” among other failings), and with no apologies.
Williams has now unleashed a second track from the album, and it’s even more ornery than its predecessor. “You Can’t Rule Me” is a straight-up blues-bar stomp; Williams’ voice has rarely sounded so beautifully ravaged, and her guitarist, Stuart Mathis, lets rip with slide-guitar solos that match the spittle in her voice.