LIVE REVIEW: Lucinda Williams at The Troubadour
Photo Courtesy of Charlotte Locicero
LOS ANGELES, CA | THE TROUBADOUR | SEPTEMBER 29, 2025 | BY RACHEL JOY THOMAS
Multi-Grammy winner Lucinda Williams, a pioneer of rock n’ roll and one of Americana’s greatest contemporaries, graced the Troubadour for three impactful nights in September 2025. The now 72-year-old rockstar made a name for herself with Car Wheels on A Gravel Road and World Without Tears, and has since stayed true to worldwide praise on her name by performing across the United States as a regular in almost every city. She’s even the subject of a new documentary, Finding Lucinda, which details the musician's iconic career.
On September 29th, she set out to perform for a bustling, sold-out crowd of nearly 500 people. Fans trickled into the Troubadour’s stairwell and filled almost every crevice of the iconic venue, set out to see the iconic songstress take the stage for one date of her ‘West Coast Tour.’
Still swinging for the fences, the blues artist kicked off “Right In Time,” an upbeat, desirable love song that set the tone for the night with a soulful, blues-driven edge. From there, she ordained her setlist with rock-heavy ballads cut straight from her greatest hits.
Doug Pettibone, a longtime member of Williams’ backing band, shifted between guitars with ease, often swapping from one to another in between each song. His Stratocaster growled through “Can’t Let Go” and “West Memphis,” while a crisp Telecaster cut through on “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” and “Pineola.”
Her backing band’s expert instrumentation perfectly paired with Williams’ husky vocals, which have improved since September 2024. The singer’s enunciation blew through the venue with a crisp, transparent refrain, echoing the best of the marooner’s ability.
As the night weaved on, Williams’ classic repertoire incorporated more country licks and twanging iterations. Pettibone took on steel pedal duty, augmenting certain tracks from the night with a bluesier tone with a simple slide across the strings.
“Lake Charles,” a country classic from her years of live performance, laid the groundwork for Williams to discuss her long-lostlong lost friend and former companion, Clyde Woodard. Williams explained Woodard’s story to the crowd, passionately describing her last goodbye with the creative who succumbed to his old habits.
Brady Blade kept a steady rhythm throughout the night, boiling through steaming drum solos as the setlist twisted back to a rockadelic, bluesy tone. His consistent swing, while a subtle and possibly underappreciated part of the performance, coalesced with Williams’ burning vocals as she sang, “You might stick me, you might trick me, I'm gonna tell you one last time,” on “You Can’t Rule Me.”
Iconic was Williams’ cover of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” a Harrison cut from the Beatles’ discography that gently ripped through the audience with vivid intensity. If Williams’ recent cover album, Lucinda Williams Sings the Beatles from Abbey Road, wasn’t an indication of her diehard status for the ’60s showstoppers, her continued admiration through performance was.
She segued toward the night’s finale with “Joy,” a heartaching ballad ripped straight from Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. As she repeated, “I'm gonna go to West Memphis / And look for my joy / Go to West Memphis / And look for my joy,” the crowd buckled and swayed, feeling the weight of her restlessness over lost happiness and her desire to move away from prior grievances. She moved toward the night’s encores, covering ground with a few crooners.
One of the most iconic elements of a Lucinda Williams concert is all the ways she pays homage to the figures who shaped her sound and collaborated with her throughout her career. In each sway and vocal refrain, an echo of a past performer — Dylan, Petty, Young, the Band — exists. Touted as “America’s Best Songwriter,” she captivated the crowd with her enthusiasm for the stage. Echoes of long-lost friendships from Louisiana and serene portraits of Tennessee called out in the Troubadour on Sept. 29, making it one of three nights Los Angeles will surely not forget.
