Lucinda Williams has shared details of a new album and released its first single – listen to new Bruce Springsteen collaboration “New York Comeback” below.
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The new single, which also features Springsteen’s wife Patti Scialfa on backing vocals, is the first preview of new LP Stories From A Rock n Roll Heart, which is due out on June 30 via Highway 20 Records/Thirty Tigers.
The album comes after Williams had to re-learn to play guitar and to walk again after a severe stroke, while her house in Nashville was also damaged by a hurricane just before the start of the COVID lockdown.
On April 25, Williams will also release a new memoir titled Don’t Tell Anybody The Secrets I Told You.
Stories From A Rock n Roll Heart also features contributions from a host of artists including Angel Olsen and Margo Price.
Listen to “New York Comeback” below.
Last year, Angel Olsen – one of the new album’s collaborators – shared a cover of Williams‘ track “Greenville” as part of the Amazon Originals series.
“There is no one like her out there,” Olsen said of the country folk singer. “It’s clear to me that her songs come from a very real place, and that’s the only kind of writing I like.”
Discussing her 2021 stroke in an interview with Rolling Stone, Williams said: “An ambulance came and got me and we told them not to put the big siren on. We didn’t want to alarm the neighbours or anything. But they put the siren on.”
Williams spent a week in the intensive care unit where doctors discovered a blood clot on the right side of her brain, which affected the left side of her body. She was then transferred to a rehabilitation centre to begin a monthlong treatment of therapy.
“What happens is your brain gets all… the wires get all crossed and you have to retrain your brain basically, to tell your arm to do whatever it is you’re trying to do. So that’s the biggest challenge,” Williams said of the healing process.
“I do, like, walking, with the cane and they watch me and see how well I’m doing. And then I have to do hand and arm exercises. It’s really about regaining my strength and mobility, and range of motion. That’s what they work with me on.”