Paste Magazine, March 1 - Lucinda Williams “Blessed”
…These are precious songs to Williams, as they will be to her listeners, and she’s chosen the ideal supporting cast to shepherd them home—pros’ pros who possess a sensitivity equal to their virtuosity. After Little Honey, she told me she never wanted to work with anyone but that LP’s co-producer/engineer, Eric Liljestrand, and on this project she doubles down, with Liljestrand manning the console while the renowned Don Was serves as producer, with the hallowed ground of Hollywood’s Capitol Studios as the setting for the sessions. Together, Was and Liljestrand create a close, natural-sounding aural space for Williams to inhabit, and she fills it with a set of vocal performances completely free of the tics and affectations that have marred some of her recordings in the previous decade. Her words and her voice have never seemed more directly connected than the do here.read more
Popdose, March 4 2011
The album was impeccably produced by Don Was with Tom Overby, and Eric Liljestrand.read more
9513, March 1, 2011
Working with Don Was and Little Honey producer Eric Liljestrand, Williams offers an intense set of roots rock that nonetheless allows some sense of emotional reprieve.read more
Relix
With Don Was sharing production reins with Eric Liljestrand and Tom Overby (who co-produced 2008’s Little Honey ), Blessed’s 12 songs are powerful and affecting—revealing new riches with each return visit.read more
Insound
It's nothing new to see Williams tug at the heartstrings and stimulate the mind with her songs, but there is a vibe throughout Blessed that is unique to this album in particular. It's the sound of the wisdom and experience Williams has gained through her years as an uncompromising talent. Combine that with award-winning producer Don Was at the helm, and something special is born. Was co-produced Blessed with Eric Liljestrand and Tom Overby, who co-produced Williams highly-praised Little Honey (2008).
Rolling Stone
Article 1 - “Whatever record I’m doing reflects my life,” says Lucinda Williams with a smile, sitting in Los Angeles’ Village Recorder studios. And guessing from the sound of the singer-songwriter’s ninth album, Little Honey, an upbeat disc of bluesy rockers and contented love songs, Williams is feeling pretty good these days...read more
Article 2 - "Is your death wish stronger than you are?" Lucinda Williams asks in "Little Rock Star," a cautionary song swathed in guitar noise that someone should instant-message to Pete Doherty, Ryan Adams and Amy Winehouse. While it shows that...read more
Trouser Press
Once famous for taking her time between albums – there was an 8-year gap between her second and third releases – Lucinda Williams has made good on her promise to make a swift follow-up to last year’s West with a new release scheduled for October. Little Honey not only collects...read more
Lucinda Willams' EPK
Watch the video here.
Paste Magazine
Listening to the upcoming album by Lucinda Williams, Little Honey, I was thrilled to come across the voice of Elvis Costello on a song called "Jailhouse Tears." Country/rock duets have a pretty long history and even...read more
Mix Magazine
The tracks were stripped down to their essence and reimagined from the inside out. Engineer/mixer Eric Liljestrand painstakingly performed the countless minute edits needed to achieve aural coherence and flow...read more
Interview with producer Eric Liljestrand on Lucinda Williams' "Little Honey"
OM: So, are you happy with the way the new Lucinda Williams CD, "Little Honey" came out?
EL: Oh, I couldn't be happier. The response has been amazing. I hear that Uncut gave us five stars out of five--apparently they don't do that often--and the reviews and general attention from the press is all very positive.
OM: How was the experience in the studio?
EL: We were a really tight bunch. We had almost no visitors during basics, just the last night I think, and we focused our energy on getting a very true, very live take of each song.
OM: Vocals and all?
EL: Lead vocals, yeah. All but two of the songs were the vocal cut live with the band. There were minimal fixes, and maybe one or two edits per song.
OM: What was a typical day like?
EL: Generally, we'd decide which song to do the night before. Tom would have an overall vibe, maybe an example, nothing hugely specific. Then, in the afternoon, the band and I would choose sounds, which guitar,amp, which cymbals and snare, and then they would jam with theses sounds and loosen up. Lu and Tom would arrive, and we'd do maybe five or six takes. Generally the choice moment was the second to last take, sometimes with a chorus or something cut in from the last take. There was so little editing required, man they all played so well. And Lu was in great voice for the whole time. We got a tune a night for the first eight days, and didn't burn anybody out. It was quite a luxury having the studio ready to go all the time.
OM: Then overdubs?
EL: Yes, about three weeks of basics and three weeks of overdubs.
OM: Where did you record?
EL: The Village, in West LA. Jeff Greenberg has a great place there. We worked in Studio D, which was built for Fleetwood Mac' "Tusk". We recorded West in there as well, and then moved next door to Studio B for the mix. We were the first ones on the new 88R in Studio B.
OM: Who played on "Little Honey"?
EL: Lu, and Buick 6, her band, namely Doug Pettibone and Chet Lyster on guitars, David Sutton on bass, and Butch Norton on drums and percussion. Then Rob Burger, who also played on "West" came in and played on one or two basics sessions, then overdubbed the rest. He did a few back in Brooklyn, where he lives, as well.
OM: Tell me about "Real Love".
EL: Several of the tunes were still around form the "West" sessions, and this was one of them. Originally, it had a kind of fifties sock hop thing which never appealed to me, so we tried to pull it up through the Sixties and into the Seventies...we reworked the drum and bass parts, made the guitars tougher, and generally rocked it out. The false start that opens the record--an homage to the many times that Lu starts over again in concert--is real. Doug played that outrageous solo on the basic and I knew we had it. We were listining back a day or two later and it occurred to me that Matthew Sweet would be perfect for the backing vocals. I've always loved his work, with all those rough guitars and the gorgeous harmonies on top, and it seemed like a natural fit. The next day Lu and Tom came in after listening to "Under the Covers", Matthew's project with Susanna Hoffs, and Lu asked if we could get Susanna too. Both Matthew and Susanna were thrilled to do it, and Tom suggested trying them on "Little Rock Star" and "Rarity" as well. The sessions were a blast, watching Matthew create the layers of harmony, hearing Susanna with that pure pop voice, just perfection. We actually attacked "Little Rock Star" first, which took the whole first session. They came back the next week and did "Real Love" and "Rarity".
OM: How did the horn parts on "Rarity" and "Knowing" come about?
EL: Lu has never had horns on her records before, but I thought these two tunes would be great with them. I'd been Jamming with Bruce (Fowler, trombone) on and off, so I called him. I'd had the horn melody from "Rarity" in my head since the "West" sessions, so I wrote it out for Bruce and asked him to start there and write the rest of the chart. He brought in his brother Walt on flugelhorn and trumpet and Albert Wing on saxes. Essentially, this is the section from Frank Zappa's band. They played these soft, beautiful parts that set off Lu's voice perfectly. Ttom had the idea of a surprise build at the end of "Rarity". I thought it best to sort of "build down" rather than build up at the end, so it wasn't going to turn into "Stairway to Heaven" or something. We have two of Buick 6 at the end, and with the horns, it's an absolutely gorgeous finish. Everyone guesses that the song is five or six minutes, but it's almost nine!
OM: What about Elvis Costello?
EL: Apparently, he was the first one to do "Jailhouse Tears" as a duet with Lu. We were batting around several names for the song, and serendipity intervened--Elvis sort of appeared and three days later we had our session. At the beginning, Elvis ran down his parts in the control room, standing arm's length away and singing the song straight to me...that's a moment I will not soon forget. It just makes me smile every time I hear his voice come in.
OM: Any other guests on the record?
EL: Grammy Award winner Jim Lauderdale, Charlie Louvin, Kristin Mooney, Gia Ciambiotti, Susan Marshall and Tim Easton, all on vocals.
OM: I hear there's a story about "Plan to Marry"
EL: While we were tracking, Lu took four days out of the studio to write. When she came back, she had "Little Rock Star:, "Plan to Marry" and two others. Right before dinner she went into the booth and ran all four down so the rest of us could learn them. The next day, Chet called Tom and said that we had to leave "Plan" just as it was...he'd started crying while listening to it in his car. He was right. It took a bit of convincing to with Lucinda, I mean, after all, it was the first time she played the song through all the way though and here we are putting it on the record. We even tried to beat it but that was the performance we all loved. And there it is.
OM: And the album closer?
EL: AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top (if you wanna Rock n Roll). Tom's idea, and everybody seems to love it. I think we all had our moments when we wondered if we should really be doing this, except maybe Tom, but it does not disappoint. I believe that was the day that Doug and Chet ended up tracking with no pants on. Don't ask!
OM: Ummmm...Anything else?
EL: Lu's publisher, Greg Sowders, suggested having a party to introduce the record to the film music community, basically looking to license some songs for movies. We got all set up at the Village, catering, wine, I even made a high resolution version of the album to play, and....the power went out on the whole block. Jeff Greenberg and I ran outside and saw another transformer blow down by the police station. We were about to send a runner to get a generator when I remembered that I had a $14.00 inverter in my car--I use it to inflate air mattresses when I'm camping--so we ran an extension cord into the studio, cut the system down to a CD player and a pair of speakers and ran the party off my car, by candle light. Since the power was out, no one else in the building could work so we had T Bone Burnett and his whole session, including Buddy Miller and Greg Leisz, Robbie Robertson came down from his room upstairs, and we all sat there in the dark eating coconut shrimp and listening to "Little Honey".
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