“Beatles Go Americana” screamed one headline in the music media when it was announced that Lucinda Williams will release a new album titled Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road. And while this collection is somewhat significant, it hardly qualifies as the Fab Four’s debut into Americana music, or, indeed, its associated genre strands.
For the world’s most covered band – estimates of Beatles recorded covers exceed 12,000 – are in the musical catalogues of some of the biggest names to have ventured into Americana. Johnny Cash is there, along with Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Bruce Springsteen, to name a few. And Jerry Garcia, one of the greatest cross-genre artists, is certainly there, whether as a solo artist, an acoustic performer with the Jerry Garcia Band or even as a founding member of fused-rock legends Grateful Dead, who have at least a dozen Beatles songs in their (mostly live) repertoire.
And further across the spectrum, the Beatles work has been interpreted by some of the biggest stars of popular music, from Frank Sinatra in the mainstream, Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, German-big-band leader James Last, or, to be completely ridiculous, The Muppets.
In fact, it could be said that almost 50 years ago, the Beatles helped construct the basic foundations of Americana. For in 1975 – a quarter of a century before the formal enunciation of the genre – Emmylou Harris released two ground-breaking albums. Pieces of the Sky hit the record stores in February and Elite Hotel some 10 months later.
They were her first releases with a major record label and would be acclaimed as ground-breaking contemporary country, because of both the diverse mix of songs and by such a multifarious bunch of writers. Of the 22 tracks on the two original albums, there were compositions from the pioneers of country (Hank Williams), country rock (Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons), country pop (Felice & Boudleaux Bryant), the Bakersfield sound (Buck Owens) and, yes, the pioneers of pop full-stop (Beatles).
Each album contained one Lennon & McCartney song and both – “For No One” (Pieces of the Sky) and “Here, There and Everywhere” (Elite Hotel) – were from the 1966 Beatles album Revolver.
There is no doubt that the inclusion of two Fab Four numbers - only five years after their last release - proved crucial for Harris in her sudden popular emergence as a solo performer. Remember, she had already emerged from obscurity through her work with Parsons. Pieces of the Sky reached the top ten of the American Billboard country chart and even the top 50 of the Billboard 200 all-genre chart. And it got better some months later when Elite Hotel topped the country charts and reached 25 on the Billboard 200.
Perhaps the real significance of these two albums on the eventual emergence of Americana lies in the broad appeal they had for a non-strictly country audience, given that both had penetrated the all-genre charts.
And it can certainly be attributed to the eclectic mix of songs she crammed into these early albums. For instance, on Pieces of the Sky, the Lennon & McCartney “For No One” was wedged between songs written by two country stalwarts Dolly Parton (“Coats of Many Colors”) and Shel Silverstein (“Queen of The Silver Dollar”). And on Elite Hotel, “Here, There and Everywhere” mingled with a version of the downright Hank Williams classic “Jambalaya,” the Hillman-Parsons country rock hit “Sin City” and the Bakersfield gem “Together Again.” And Harris sang them all as though she owned them.
To be fair, Harris wasn’t the first country-fused artist to record Beatles songs. The Dillards recorded two Lennon & McCartney songs in 1968-69 and progressive bluegrass band The Country Gentlemen cut an astonishing acoustic version of the classic “Yesterday” in 1970. But it was Emmylou actually integrating pop into contemporary country which would sow the seeds of Americana.
Fast forward near fifty years to a firmly-established star Lucinda Williams in the now firmly-established Americana genre and her decision to upstage them all and deliver an album of 12 strictly-Beatles songs.
An album dedicated to songs by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr is, of course, nothing new. There are all-Beatles albums right across the great musical divide; like folk legend Judy Collins (Judy Collins Sings Lennon & McCartney) and bluegrass stars the Charles River Valley Boys (Beatle Country) at one end to reggae collective Easy Star All-Stars (Easy Star’s Lonely Heart Club Band) and further up the spectrum, the studio orchestra The Hollyridge Strings (The Beatles Songbook Vol 1-5).
But Williams trumps them all by becoming, what is believed to be, the first major artist to actually record Beatles songs at London’s Abbey Road studios, made famous by popular music’s most-famous group who recorded 190 of their 210 songs there. In fact, a massive range of artists, from classic and orchestral legends like Yehudi Menuhin and Andre Previn to pop icons like Pink Floyd and Amy Winehouse, graced the hallow studios in St John’s Wood NW London.
Williams may be in premiere company, but her all-Beatles repertoire trumps them all. And she took her full band – Marc Ford (guitar), Doug Pettibone (guitar), David Sutton (bass), Butch Norton (drums), with Richard Causon (Hammond B-3) and Siobhan M Kennedy (backing vocals) - to the north London landmark. Their 12-song output mixes classic hits like “Let It Be,”“Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Something” and “With A Little Help From My Friends” with the more obscure “I’m So Tired” and “Yer Blues.”
This is not the first time Williams has dedicated albums to a single artist. Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road actually forms volume 7 of what has become known as Lu’s Jukebox series. It started in 2020, during the pandemic, to help dependent music when there were no live performances. The last release was 2022 and big names like Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones are among the Jukebox dedications.
What makes this output even more impressive is that it further demonstrates the sheer grittiness of 71-year-old Williams. For in November 2020, a month after she launched the Jukebox series, Williams suffered a serious stroke which saw her admitted to intensive care.
After taking several months to recover, she returned to recording and doing shows with her band without playing guitar. “I can sing fine,” she told The Guardian. “Some people tell me I’m singing better than before I had the stroke.”
In June 2023, Williams released her 15th studio album Stories from a Rock ‘n Roll Heart followed by a promotional tour. And she has a series of concerts currently scheduled.
Also in 2023, she published a memoir Don’t Tell Anybody The Secrets I told You, an absorbing, and at times revealing, look back on a life spent mostly on the road.
Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road will be released on 6th of December 2024. Two singles – “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Something” – have been pre-released.
Paul Cutler
Editor Crossroads – Americana Music Appreciation
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