Lucinda Williams - In My Girlish Days - Non-Album Tracks (1981-1986)

Lucinda Williams is another musician I really like. I plan on posting a lot of her music here.

Williams' career got off to a rather unusual start. She put out an acoustic all-covers album in 1979 called "Ramblin'" then an album of originals called "Happy Woman Blues" in 1980. So far, so good. But then she didn't release anything else all the way until 1988. That delay would have killed off the careers of most musicians. But her 1988 album, simply titled "Lucinda Williams," was so strong that it put her  on the map as a serious artist.

So what's the deal with that eight year gap between her second and third albums? Partially, it turned out she had a very tough time getting a record contract that she was satisfied with. But also, it turned out that she was a perfectionist. Her next two albums in particular also were delayed for years while she labored to get things exactly as she wanted them.

However, as it turned out, those eight years weren't wasted in terms of songwriting. I'm not a big fan of her 1980 album of originals. It's okay, but not great. However, her 1988 album is fantastic. Clearly, in the years in between, she made great strides in her songwriting. In fact, it turns out that many of the songs on her later albums, including at least half of her acclaimed 1992 album "Sweet Old World" were actually written during this eight-year period.

Furthermore, it turns out that she wrote even more songs during that period that fell by the wayside and were never officially released. Who knows just how many such songs there are, but we know some of them due to songs that have been made public through bootlegs. This album is a compilation of all the unreleased songs I could find.

The songs here come from four sources. The first three are from a 1981 radio show. One of the songs there, "Pancakes," was released on a various artists compilation in 1993, but that was a very different arrangement. The next five songs are from 1984 acoustic studio demos. One of those, "Out of Touch," was released on her 2001 album "Essence." But again it's a different arrangement, with somewhat different lyrics. The next three songs are from a 1985 radio show. The last song is from a 1986 studio session. A live version of that song, "Sundays," would be released on the 25th anniversary edition of the 1988 "Lucinda Williams" album. But again, that very is significantly different.

So, all in all, most of these songs are totally unreleased, but three of them have appeared elsewhere in other forms. All the songs are acoustic in nature, with a couple of musicians joining Williams for the first three songs and the last one. I'm not entirely sure, but as far as I know, the only song that wasn't written by Williams is "In My Girlish Days," which is a cover of a Memphis Minnie song.

I don't think this album is as great as the great 1988 album "Lucinda Williams." But I like it more than her 1980 album "Happy Woman Blues." It's quite different from both of those albums too, since the 1988 one is a lively mix of country, blues, and rock, and the 1980 one has a strong country feel, but this one is mellow and acoustic. If you're a Lucinda Williams fan, you should definitely give it a listen.

01 All I Want (Lucinda Williams)
02 Song for a Jewelry Maker (Lucinda Williams)
03 Pancakes (Lucinda Williams)
04 Out of Touch (Lucinda Williams)
05 Venetian Blinds (Lucinda Williams)
06 I Bet It (Lucinda Williams)
07 What I'm Living For (Lucinda Williams)
08 Hard Times (Lucinda Williams)
09 In My Girlish Days (Lucinda Williams)
10 This Is Not My Town (Lucinda Williams)
11 Lover of the Hour (Lucinda Williams)
12 Sundays (Lucinda Williams)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15191371/LucndaWllms_1981-1986_InMyGirlishDys_atse.zip.html

I figured "In My Girlish Days" is a good time, since the mid-1980s are "girlish days" when compared to the length of Williams' musical career since then. I'm not sure where the photo for the cover art comes from, or what year it's from, but I can guess her general age. It was damn hard for me to find any photos of Williams from the early to mid-1980s. I settled on a black and white one. But, over a year later, I colorized it.