Can't Let Go- Lucinda Williams

Hello everyone and welcome back to another post, today I will be talking about the badass Lucinda Williams. Lucinda has been featured on Lydia’s Girls several times including the first album. For those of you who don’t know Lucinda, the 68 year old was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She grew up with a lot of creativity with her father being a poet and mother a pianist. Lucinda started writing songs when she was only six and began playing guitar at the age of twelve. Lucinda’s music career formed when she played gigs in Texas, playing a mixture of folk, rock, and country. Lucinda has recorded sixteen albums including her most recent: Good Souls, Better Angels in 2020. Lucinda recently suffered from a stroke caused by a blood clot. She struggled with walking and was unable to play guitar for a while but has now fully recovered. Lucinda is a very special artist to me because I love how her voice is so unique. I’m sure many people might think that her voice is not soft and melodic like many other artists, but that’s what I like about it. My dad and I were talking about her the other day and we just love how raw and real her voice is. Recently Alison Krauss (another Lydia’s Girl) and Robert Plant released an album on which they covered her song Can’t Let Go. And although the cover is really good, Lucinda’s voice on her recording really makes the song complete.

I love so many of Lucinda’s songs and I could probably write about all of them, but since I have recently listened to this I will be discussing her song Can’t Let Go written by Randy Weeks. The first observation I have to mention is the instrumentation. The guitar section including the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and electric slide guitar, is absolutely amazing. If you listen closely, the acoustic guitar that is playing the rhythm combined with the drums sounds like a train chugging along its tracks, while the two electric guitars are having a conversation with the electric bass. Each instrument has its particular role and place in the song. I can only imagine how much fun this was writing and playing around with. Even though Steve Earle who co-produced and played guitar on this track said it was his least favorite to record. Anyways, let's talk about the lyrics. This song is about not being able to get over someone and, you guessed it, can't let them go. I love the line: “I’m like a fish out of water, a cat in a tree. You don’t even wanna talk to me.” These lyrics have always painted such a vivid picture for me along with the chorus part: “I got a big chain around my neck, and I’m broken down like a train wreck.” I definitely feel like the train wreck line is very symbolic with how the music sounds like a train. The music also goes the speed of the train getting faster and faster throughout the song, and then at the end it gets slower like the train has come to a complete stop. Maybe at the end of the song she’s trying to say that she’s finally let go, or that she is just so exhausted by the relationship that she’s burned out like a train wreck. I could totally be reading into the music and lyrics too much, but I feel like it was purposely orchestrated. Take a listen to it and let me know what you think. Am I reading into it too much? Or is Lucinda Williams just a music mastermind?