I just flashed back on seeing Lucinda Williams at a pizza parlor somewhere in L.A. in the late-80's. Her s/t Rough Trade album had just been released, and I loved it. There were only a half-dozen people in the place.
The stage was tiny, her drummer David Lindley playing not a full set but a rub board. She had her original L.A. band, with Gurf Morlix on Telecaster and harmony vocals and Dr. John (not THE Dr. John, but an actual doctor) on standup bass.
Who woulda thought her Car Wheels On A Gravel Road album a decade later would elevate her into a major star? I had been introduced to her earlier in the 80's, at a Long Ryders show at Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd. (her then-husband was their drummer). She was very shy.
I saw her a few more times before CWOAGR broke big, last at The Troubadour, quite a step up from the pizza parlor. After the CW album, it was into big theaters. Last time I saw her, she had Jim Lauderdale playing acoustic rhythm guitar and singing harmonies, and the great Jim Christie on drums, whom she had just stolen from Dwight Yoakam's band. Fantastic!