Last week, New Yorkers were treated to five nights of Lucinda Williams’ concerts.

Williams is one of the most celebrated singer songwriters of the past 25 years. Her body of work defies conventional categories blending folks, blues, country and rock into a unique and organic distillation. Williams played five sold out shows across two venues, Irving Plaza and Town Hall.

The first set of each show was devoted to one of five studio albums: World without Tears; Essence; Car Wheels on Gravel Road; Sweet Old World; and the eponymously titled Lucinda Williams.

The second sets mixed material from her other recordings and featured guest stars like Jim Lauderdale, Willie Nile, Joan Osborn and members of Yo La Tengo. I had the pleasure of catching her final show this past Thursday at Town Hall, a performance which featured her 1988 release, Lucinda Williams. This is a sublime album of narratives that address themes of unrequited love, heartbreak and emotional wreckage as well as more upbeat rockers.

These songs represent some of her most enduring compositions. Several of these songs have been performed by other artists such Mary Chapin Carpenter who had a huge hit with "Passionate Kisses" and Tom Petty who recorded "I Changed the Locks." The album is sadly out of print at the moment.

She played the same set of concerts in Los Angeles a few weeks earlier. All of the concerts were recorded and are available as individual CDs or as boxed sets.

Lucinda Williams’ concerts are never predictable affairs. More often than not, they are magnificent experiences. However, on some occasions, they teeter dangerously on the precipice of a train wreck. On this night she straddled the boundary, but in the end delivered a truly transcendent experience to a devoted and supportive crowd.

First Set: Lucinda Williams
tours with an outstanding band that includes the brilliant Doug Pettibone on lead guitar, the equally fine Chet Lyster on rhythm, lead and pedal steel guitar and a mighty rhythm section featuring David Sutton on bass and the mighty Butch Norton behind the drums.

Singer-songwriter extraordinaire, Jim Lauderdale, sat in for most of the first set and some of the second as well. He is widely regarded as a country folk artist, but his music covers the gamut of blues, rock, and bluegrass.