lucinda williams & audrey simon

On April 15, 2007, Lucinda Williams rocked the Michigan Theater in downtown Ann Arbor. The show was powerfully spiritual, emotionally rich and full of the feminine aspect in all it's complexity. Walking home after the show, deeply moved by the intensity of Lucinda's performance and the power of a woman who can sing soul, blues, country, rock and roll and songs that go right for the heart, I got a phone call that changed my life. My dearest friend Audrey Simon had died suddenly of a ruptured aorta. Through the next several weeks of becoming accustomed to the loss of Audrey, my thoughts turned again and again to Lucinda Williams. A few days before Audrey passed, we had dinner together to celebrate Audrey's recent birthday, and as Audrey shared with me all the things in her life that were giving her pleasure and contentment, I said to her, "You've found your joy". Audrey agreed, and we laughed over how much we both loved the song that line came from--Lucinda William's "Joy". Check it out here: http://www.last.fm/music/Lucinda+Williams/_/Joy Lucinda had played the song only a few days later, that night at the Michigan Theater, while, without me knowing, Audrey was leaving this earth.

A few nights ago, Lucinda Williams returned to the Michigan Theater, and I was right there-- celebrating Audrey, and honoring the power of a woman musican who more than holds her own with an electric guitar and a kick ass back-up band, singing her life from her heart and soul.