The Literary Chick

The 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣6️⃣ MAKE MUSIC FAIRFIELD OFFICIAL LINEUP IS HERE!

We are SO excited for this year’s event!

Bring your friends, families, neighbors, colleagues and enjoy the BEST DAY OF THE YEAR – 🎶 on the ☀️ Solstice!

See you on SUNDAY, June 2️⃣1️⃣!

To learn more about Make Music Fairfield, check out our website at makemusicday.org/Fairfield ! Interested in being a volunteer? Send us an email at [email protected]!

A stroke couldn't stop her. Political chaos won't either. The 73-year-old songwriter talks protest music, resilience, and why age is just a number.

Lucinda Williams has known strange times before these. When she thinks back to her days as a teenage antiwar activist in late-1960s New Orleans, she remembers the first songs that helped her feel connected and sane during another period of societal unrest: the old spiritual “We Shall Overcome” and Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War.”

Now 73, the three-time Grammy winner has her own legacy, writing and performing songs filled with emotional grit and longing, and hopes for a better day. She’s always told vivid stories and cautionary tales, along with some biting social commentary, set to music blending her obsessions with the blues, country, folk, and the guitar fireworks of Neil Young’s band Crazy Horse.

On her recently-released album, World’s Gone Wrong, she veers into the present moment of political unease with 10 songs of defiance and weary contemplation. The opening title track describes a couple persevering through weird times and gaining strength in each other: “C’mon baby you gotta be strong …” On “Something’s Gotta Give,” she notes “a heaviness to these days” and “I think we’ve lost our way.”

The jangly “How Much Did You Get For Your Soul” sounds like a classic early ’60s pop-rocker right off of Nuggets, as she taunts an unnamed villain: “I gotta ask you, how does it feel to be bought?” There’s also a moving reggae cover of Bob Marley’s “So Much Trouble In The World” as a duet with Mavis Staples, and the exhausted but hopeful “We’ve Come Too Far to Turn Around,” with Norah Jones on piano and harmony vocals.

World’s Gone Wrong was recorded in Nashville with producer Ray Kennedy. Some songs were co-written with her husband and manager Tom Overby, and on guitars are Doug Pettibone and Marc Ford (formerly of the Black Crowes).

Born in Louisiana, Williams grew up bouncing from one town to another across the South, Utah, Mexico, and Chile, and as an artist she has passed through the music scenes in New York, Los Angeles, Austin, and, for the last five years, Nashville. Always critically acclaimed, Williams delivered her long-gestating masterwork, Car Wheels On a Gravel Road, in 1998. Ever since, she has been a consistent font of deeply felt songs of vulnerability and righteous anger, and regularly compared to her influences, from Dylan to Memphis Millie.

After a stroke in November 2020, she spent weeks in the hospital, followed by more weeks in rehab, but she was determined to get back out on the road, which she did within a year. She published a memoir, Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You, in 2023. World’s Gone Wrong is now her second album since her health crisis, and last year she opened a New York City honky-tonk called Lucinda’s. She’s never been busier.

See the full interview at the link in the comments.

"Frida: The Making of an Icon," goes beyond just displaying artwork to understand how the woman behind the floral crowns and unibrow became a worldwide cultural phenomenon 🇲🇽🎨 This exhibition will explore Frida Kahlo's art, personal letters, clothing, photographs, and other personal items from June 25, 2026, to January 3, 2027, at the Modern 🌿 Tag someone who should go with you!

Seattle, I’m excited to announce that I’ll be at Tractor Tavern on June 11 with special guest Jaimee Harris. Tickets are available now at the link below. Secure yours now, you won’t want to miss it.
https://www.ticketweb.com/event/mary-gauthier-w-special-guest-tractor-tickets/14162884?pl=tractor

Just 4 months to go ✨Ossie Clark / Celia Birtwell is coming to the Fashion and Textile Museum this autumn - a new exhibition exploring the partnership that shaped the look of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Think flowing chiffons, bold prints, and rock‑and‑roll glamour!

We’re counting down already…
Pre-book your tickets now:
https://fashiontextilemuseum.org/exhibitionsdisplays/ossie-clark-celia-birtwell/