Lucinda Williams Feels More Empowered Than Ever With ‘Good Souls Better Angels’

Growing up around New Orleans in the 1960s, acclaimed songwriter, Lucinda Williams, absorbed much of what was happening throughout the turbulent country. She engaged in protests in the streets for racial equality and to end the Vietnam War, among other important social statements. She listened to artist like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Her parents were academics – a creative writing professor and a music major – so Williams’ education was fostered and supported at home. At one point, she was expelled from high school for not saying the “Pledge of Allegiance.” But her father found an ACLU lawyer who fought the verdict, saying the expulsion was unconstitutional. Today, Williams says she sees many of the same divisions in the country that she did decades prior. These themes run throughout her latest LP, Good Souls Better Angels, as well as her forthcoming group of shows set to benefit American music venues in their time of need.