The Harley-Davidson Roadhouse dedicates itself to roots-rock icons today, starting at 3 p.m., when cow-punk favorites the Drive-By Truckers take the stage. Roots-rock survivor Alejandro Escovedo takes the stage at 7:30 p.m., followed by songstress Lucinda Williams at 10 p.m. Although she records at a notoriously slow pace, over the quarter century since her breakthrough album, 1980's Happy Woman Blues, Williams has built one of the strongest discographies in the modern country/folk canon. As her voice shows signs of wear and tear, taking on a roughness usually reserved for her male counterparts, Williams' work has become rawer and more in line with contemporary roots-rock. Her latest disc, West, a meditation on a tumultuous relationship, is an unsettling song cycle filled with tension and violence.
