Critic's Corner
Lucinda's
Nobody ever who has been to Alphabet City in the East Village has ever had the thought that what the neighborhood really needed was a honkey-tonk country bar. Seriously, literally no one. Lucinda's, the new bar opened by country star Lucinda Williams, is located next to Tompkins Square Park. Tompkins was famous for being “Needle Park” back in the day, and for infamous murders including the guy who chopped up his girlfriend to serve the local homeless population. It was also, and continues to be, a hotspot for skaters, as well as punk culture and music. This was true up until the late 2010s when the yuppies really started to take over. Now Tompkins is mostly cluttered with girls and their lattes, NYU kids and guys wearing beanies in the summer.
Though it felt kind of out of nowhere, I was open to the new bar as there isn't much of a …
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49 Winchester
The hillbilly highway runs both ways.
Isaac Gibson’s red beard is part-Walt Whitman and part-Billy Gibbons.
Good songs ask a question, great ones answer it.
It’s the Saturday before Christmas and I’m backstage, sitting on a plastic folding chair at the National in Richmond, Virginia. The “rec room,” as the black lettering on the frosted glass door calls it, reminds me of a student lounge or a band hall. There’s a pool table between two spinet pianos in opposite corners, and an arcade game against a far wall. I’ve found myself here for the second sold-out night of 49 Winchester, an alt-country band that’s soon to conclude their winter tour in Richmond, and this lounge isn’t a bad spot to beat out the pre-show jitters.
Isaac Gibson, the band’s lead singer and songwriter, walks in with his bassist, Chase Chafin, though neither of them sit until they make certain that I’m already comfortable. “You’re sure you’re good there?” Gibson asks for a second time before he makes his way over to the cognac leather sofa. “Yeah,” I reply, “I’m just …
