From Oasis and Aerosmith to Elvis Presley and William Shatner, artists of all stripes just love to cover the rock & roll ur-text of the Beatles. But only a select few succeed in honoring the source material, making it uniquely their own, and creating something worth hearing. Add Lucinda Williams to that short list. On her new album Lucinda Williams Sings the Beatles From Abbey Road, the Americana royal known for her hard-edged, poetic songwriting interprets a dozen Beatles songs, wrapping her idiosyncratic voice around well-known standards like “Let It Be” and “Something,” along with deeper cuts like “Rain” and “I’ve Got a Feeling.”
Williams’ singing style can be an acquired taste. It is a rough Southern drawl, punctuated by moans and warbles that help convey the gravity of her lived-in lyricism. Turns out, that Louisiana-reared voice has the same effect on the works of Lennon-McCartney and Harrison. Her rendering of “Don’t Let Me Down,” which opens the album, is especially pleading, as Williams all but cries the chorus with the same ragged emotion she put into her own “Joy,” off her masterwork Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Her take on “Something” is similarly full of yearning, her cadence drawn out and desperate when she sings, “You’re asking me will my love grow/I don’t know, I don’t know.” She’s not just reciting well-worn lines here, but summoning the gut-churning uncertainty of a romance.
No doubt the environment in which Williams recorded these songs helped inspire the performances: She and her band, including guitarists Doug Pettibone and Marc Ford, cut mostly live on the floor at Abbey Road Studios. (According to a release, Williams is the only major artist, aside from the lads from Liverpool themselves, to record Beatles songs at the legendary London studio.) “I’ve Got a Feeling” bristles with the energy of the musicians, who hang back until Williams shouts the chorus, waiting to explode in a blast of guitars and drums. The gang vocals on the “Everybody had a…” refrain underscores the loose and live vibes. On Williams’ reading of “Rain,” one of the Beatles’ greatest B-sides, the background vocals, light and airy, are juxtaposed with her deep nasal tones, which cling like syrup to her delivery of “When the sun shiiines.”
Not each of the 12 covers is a home run, however. “I’m So Tired” puts too much stock in its title, sleepwalking along to its conclusion on lethargic legs. The poppiness of “Can’t Buy Me Love,” meanwhile, comes across as incongruous for an artist so rooted in heavy soul-searching. Still, both stand as courageous choices.
Williams is much more in her wheelhouse on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Yer Blues.” “Well, I’m lonely/wanna die,” she laments in the latter, revealing her true self as a Delta blues singer. The performance crackles with electricity and deadly foreboding, rivaling Lennon’s own starkly vulnerable recording on the White Album. He would approve.
