DISC ONE:

1. Passionate Kisses (David Letterman 10/4/1985)
2. Something About What Happens When We Talk (American Music Shop 6/4/1992, w/Mary Chapin Carpenter)
3. Happy Woman Blues (ditto, solo)
4. Little Angel, Little Brother (ditto, solo)
5. Passionate Kisses (ditto, w/M.C. Carpenter & Tim O’Brien)
6. Six Blocks Away (Letterman 10/14/1992, w/Roger McGuinn)
7. Lines Around Your Eyes (Letterman 2/23/1993)
8. Can’t Let Go (Jay Leno 10/1/1998)
9. interview (ditto)
10. Can’t Let Go (Saturday Night Live 2/20/1999)
11. 2 Cool 2 Be $ Gotten (ditto)
12. Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
13. Pineola
14. interview
15. Right In Time
16. Drunken Angel
17. interview
18. Can’t Let Go

    (tracks 12-18 Sessions At West 54, hosted by David Byrne, 1998)

     

    DISC TWO:

    1. Pineola
    2. Drunken Angel
    3. Changed The Locks

    (Hard Rock Live 1998)

    4. Can’t let Go
    5. Greenville
    6. Still I Long For Your Kiss
    7. Jackson
    8. Joy

    (Austin City Limits 1999)

    9. Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
    10. Pineola
    11. interview + Right In Time
    12. Drunken Angel
    13. Can’t let Go  (Sessions At West 54 1998)

    14. See How I Miss You

    15. Something About What Happens When We Talk

    16. What We Need is Love

    17. If I Had A Rocket Launcher

    18. Little Angel Little Brother

    19. Seven Year Ache

    20. Kit Carson

    21. Hot Blood

    22. Lonely Hearts

    23. Dreamline Mind

    24. Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right

        (Austin City Limits on Inn Television 1992, w/Rosanne Cash & Bruce Cockburn)

A TV clips collection frequently stands a pretty good chance of boring the viewer; I mean, how many times can you sit through a dutiful, all-smiles rendition of the same hit song performed on all the late night talk shows? (And don’t even get me started on a collection of vintage clips when lip-synching was the norm.) This one holds up pretty well, however, for despite Lucinda Williams being a somewhat static performer when she’s delivering short doses of her material – a full 2 ½ hour concert is undoubtedly the way to experience her, the material and settings are varied enough to hold your interest. (You also get to watch her hair styles change, from that dumpy blonde shag she affected early on to her temporary attempt to go moderne with a spikey black ‘do to a longish blonde cut and back to the blonde shag. Kinda like watching Mick Jagger change over the course of all the Ed Sullivan clips.)

All of the clips are either from 1992 or from 1998-99, save one exception: Disc One, track 1 is from 1985 and it marked Williams’ very first appearance on network television. Another treat is getting to hear her do “Passionate Kisses” in ’92 with Mary Chapin Carpenter backing her up, followed by, a few songs later, Carpenter taking lead vocal on the same song – which, of course, she turned into an early hit, thereby helping Williams’ then-struggling career along immeasurably. And the songwriters’ circle extended segment that closes out Disc Two is classic, with Williams, Bruce Cockburn and Rosanne Cash trading off on songs and backing each other up and also having a final group blowout on the Dylan song. (Also onstage: Gurf Morlix, Colin Linden and John Leventhal.)

Sound and picture quality are uniformly good and the packaging is tastefully done. On the down side: for some unknown reason the compilers decided to duplicate a portion of the Sessions At West 54 on Disc Two, and while it’s possible it came from a different broadcast source, skimming through that and the W54 material on Disc One, I couldn’t detect a significant difference in quality. And on the curious side, it’s a real head-scratcher as to why Disc One has scene selection but Disc Two isn’t tracked at all! (At least they’re indexed so you can move forward to each song using the remote.) --OSWALD