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That old Lucinda Williams album....

I stumbled across a blog-entry this morning which claimed that Lucinda Williams' self-titled 1988 album is presently unavailable in any format – CD, LP, even download. I had a hard time believing this could be true, until I checked around.

I tried Amazon; you can get it used there, but as for new copies, it's tagged, "This item has been discontinued by the manufacturer." I went to eMusic, a download service specializing in independent-label music (the album was last available on the large indie Koch), but nothing doing. Fine, I figured, at least iTunes must have it; they have pretty much everything of significance involving major and semi-major artists (which Lucinda clearly has become, over the past couple decades). They've got Little Honey, and Essence, and Car Wheels, and West, and Sweet Old World, and World Without Tears, and even her circa-1980 discs Ramblin' and Happy Woman Blues....but '88's Lucinda Williams? Nada.

This is unfathomably stupid. (Or, well, maybe not so stupid, as it turns out -- see Eugene's comment below for notes about an apparently upcoming reissue.)

Which is not meant as a slam against Koch, or any of the other various labels that have had the rights to this disc over the years (and there have been a few, as I recall). It's understood at this point that record labels are going to fluctuate and/or fall by the wayside as fast and as frequently as, well, as music magazines anymore.

But somehow, some way, this album absolutely has to be kept in circulation. We're not just talking about a random early work of a later-to-be-revered songwriter. No, the self-titled Lucinda Williams album is, quite plainly, the next-generation equivalent of Carole King's 1971 masterpiece Tapestry.

And by that I mean, in addition to being a terrific "songwriter's songwriter" record fully in its own right, it also proved its worth, and its influence, over the years via the cover versions that were recorded of not just a handful of its songs, but almost every single one of them. (The only tune on the record which, to the best of my knowledge, has not been covered is "Like A Rose".)

Indeed, a few years ago I compiled my own separate "tribute" version of this album using tracks that already exist. And it's a far-from-shabby assortment of artists, to be sure. Here's how it plays (with the links, you can get a sonic sense of it, or perhaps build your own):

1. I Just Wanted To See You So Bad – Joy Lynn White
2. The Night’s Too Long – Patty Loveless
3. Abandoned – Linda Thompson
4. Big Red Sun Blues – Johnny Rodriguez
5. Like A Rose – Lucinda Williams (one from the original album, for context)
6. Changed The Locks – Tom Petty
7. Passionate Kisses – Mary Chapin Carpenter
8. Am I Too Blue – Tres Chicas
9. Crescent City – Emmylou Harris
10. Side Of The Road – Ben Folds
11. Price To Pay – Tim & Mollie O’Brien
12. I Asked For Water – Howlin’ Wolf (the album's lone cover; makes sense to go back to the source)

There are other options, too. The first band to cover "Side Of The Road" was actually the Schramms, on an early '90s album; Lucinda has sometimes plugged their version from the stage in her own shows. Lucinda acolyte Kasey Chambers, in her days with her family's Dead Ringer Band, sang the album's leadoff track; later on, she performed "Changed The Locks" on Austin City Limits. The latter song landed on a Tom Petty record in a roundabout way stemming from the Silos' 1994 cover (after a brief pass through Johnny Cash's camp which never resulted in a version being recorded). Mollie O'Brien, in addition to doing "Price To Pay" with her brother Tim, also recorded a rather nice version of "Big Red Sun Blues". And you could swap out her "Price To Pay" for the rendition by Canadian roots band Prairie Oyster. (There are, no doubt, others out there too; certainly live takes, as I've heard many artists cover some of these songs onstage over the years, but also probably other studio versions as well. As a matter of fact, just right this very minute I came across a rather trippy Mazzy Star-ish YouTube take on "Like A Rose".)

So. I don't care how it happens. Nevermind the imminent demise of the entire industry of music (and media, and publishing, and photography, and everything else that can be digitized and summarily devalued). Just, somehow or other, let's not forget about this record in midst of it all. It deserves better than that.

Comment by Ron Frankl on June 5, 2009 at 9:14am: Sadly, I think we're going to see this more and more. Once essential albums quietly sliding from availability, without notice or complaint. Koch Records doesn't even exist any more; it's been rebranded as E-1 Records, seemingly far from its classical roots.

I share Peter's dismay that Lucinda's breakthrough is out of print, but this album always seemed a little cursed. If I recall correctly, Rough Trade practically went broke trying to break this album, and it was unavailable for a long spell before its reissue by Koch, after Car Wheels made Lucinda a hot property again.

I think there's also a tendency to forget that we all got a little spoiled in the CD era, in which virtually everything you'd want in your collection was available from some place or another, if you looked hard enough. Well, nothing is selling any more, and it doesn't pay to carry non-sellers in inventory.. I was shocked recently to note how many essential jazz and blues titles are also no longer available. Welcome the the brave new world of digital only music. I hate it.

Comment by Easy Ed on June 5, 2009 at 9:21am: Knowing the folks at Koch, I can't imagine that they'd ever miss an opportunity to keep this an active title . So I would guess there was a legal issue or two that caused it to disappear. And it certainly has disappeared...for the past five minutes I've scoured both above and below the legal line to find it, and outside of the crazy world known as the Amazon Marketplace (used from $25.69 to $274.99), it's flown the coop. It'll be interesting to see how long it'll take someone who reads your blog to through it up on a file share service.

The comment about record labels falling by the wayside gave me pause. The last label I worked at had generated approximately seven million in sales back in 2005...it dropped to three million in 2007...and it does maybe a million today. While that sounds like a bit of money, they went from thirty-three employees to about seven, and some of those are part-time. The model was built on physical distribution of CDs where they made X amount of dollars per unit, and now it's primarily digital sales of tracks where they make pennies.

Admittedly I haven't played it out, but all of a sudden this morning I can imagine a scenario where this particular label and hundreds like it, will exit the business altogether and titles will not only go completely out of circulation but quite possibly lost. Not to take away from your theme here as it relates to Lucinda...but we could be on the verge of an international tragedy where great works of art are lost.

Comment by David Shaw on June 5, 2009 at 9:21am: Love that record ... "Night's Too Long" is one of my all time fave Lucinda songs (I was lucky enough to see her play it with her original band ... except for the bassist who wasn't on the Sweet Old World tour ... Gurf and Donald Lindley were electric ... you can see them all in action in the recent Austin City Limits DVD from 1989 [I think] ... I originally had it as a Rough Trade cassette (I still have the Rough Trade EP cassette of other songs that got added to the Koch release ... I think it's called Passionate Kisses).

Comment by Easy Ed on June 5, 2009 at 9:33am: Just found the cassette buried in my closet....thanks for the reminder David. Totally forgot about it. Finding a cassette player may prove to be the bigger problem.

Comment by Peter Blackstock on June 5, 2009 at 9:48am: Hey Ron -- thanks for the further thoughts.

While I concur with your basic observation that "nothing is selling any more, and it doesn't pay to carry non-sellers in inventory" ... the thing that surprises me is that it's not even available via iTunes or other download services. There's no inventory involved with that; indeed, it's precisely the lack of need for inventory that I would think should mean an increase in availability of back-catalogue stuff in the digital age.

I do wonder if, in this particular case, someone else (Lost Highway perhaps?) has obtained the rights and is just plotting a reissue effort (whether on disc or just digitally). If in fact it's just languishing in limbo amid the Koch transformation, it needs to be rescued, somehow or other.

It also wouldn't be a half-bad idea for iTunes or Amazon or someone to package together an all-covers version like what I posted above and sell it digitally. Probably pretty easy to do logistically -- royalties could still go to the owners of the existing tracks, which are already being sold through other channels. The only actual "production" cost, far as I can tell, would be to create a page where all those tracks are gathered in one spot, for combined download-purchase.

Comment by Pete Bilderback on June 5, 2009 at 11:52am: Peter, thanks for noticing my post. I too was shocked to discover this album was unavailable. The first thing that tipped me off was that after I did a needledrop of my LP and clicked "find artwork" in iTunes, it came up blank. So I looked for it on iTunes...not there...Amazon...used and pricey. Couldn't find it anywhere.

I was only aware of a few of the covers you mention, but it doesn't surprise me that there are so many. This was an album that had a real impact in the music community before the general music buying public caught on.

I do hope Lost Highway or someone has a reissue planned. Albums go in and out of print all the time, but some are simply to good to ever go out-of-print, and this (in my opinion) is one of them.

Comment by Dean on June 5, 2009 at 12:08pm: There are a couple of copies on eBay, too. One's at only $3.99 with a couple days left.

Comment by eugene unger on June 5, 2009 at 12:30pm: The album is set for reissue later this Fall. There is also the possiblity of special one-off shows to showcase the album. Below is the latest info from Luncinda's manager from her message board.

http://www.lucindawilliams.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=558&start=45#p8658

Re: Lucinda Williams Self Titled Album
by TOverby on Thu Apr 23, 2009 10:58 pm

Yes-- working on it now -we've had delays getting the label/distribution deal finished -but decisions will be made soon because I would like to get it out in Sept now -so we can tie it into the last leg of the tour this year. The dvd part is basically done and Eric Liljestrand and I are going thru some additional tapes we found to see if there's any extra recordings from that era.

Comment by Ron Frankl on June 5, 2009 at 12:46pm: That's great news. Thanks for the research; I couldn't find anything about it on her website.

Comment by Peter Blackstock on June 5, 2009 at 2:10pm: Indeed, muchas gracias Eugene.....In the immortal words of Daniel Johnston, "I take it all back, I take it all back!"

(Well, the track-listing of the theoretical all-covers version of the album is still kinda worth something, hopefully....)

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