Lucinda Williams spent 45 years making good on her father’s cardinal rule: never censor yourself. World’s Gone Wrong, her sixteenth studio album and the record she brings to MASS MoCA this October, arrives at that principle’s most direct expression — nine originals that snarl and grind with what reviewers have called the fury and clarity of protest music built to last. Williams has called music “a powerful weapon.” At 73, still recovering from a 2020 stroke that stopped her guitar playing, she sounds, in one reviewer’s words, “present and ready to mix it.” There is something worth sitting still for in that.
About the Show
FreshGrass Presents (a concert series the FreshGrass Foundation launched in 2026 while pausing its flagship North Adams festival) brings Williams and her full band to the Hunter Center on Friday, October 2 at 8:00 p.m. Her road band: Brady Blade on drums, David Sutton on bass, Doug Pettibone and Marc Ford on guitars. The show is seated.
World’s Gone Wrong (Highway 20 Records, January 2026) was co-produced by Tom Overby, Williams’ husband and longtime collaborator, and Ray Kennedy at Room & Board Studio in Nashville. Its nine originals range from the swampy title track to “Sing Unburied Sing,” a Southern rocker drawn from Jesmyn Ward’s novel of the same name, to a Bob Marley cover, “So Much Trouble in the World,” with Mavis Staples on harmony. Brittney Spencer and Norah Jones also appear as guests across the record, described by reviewers as voices that extend thematic conversations rather than diluting the album’s message. Before launching this fall headlining tour, Williams will support Bob Dylan on select summer dates including Forest Hills Stadium, Wolf Trap, and Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater. A three-time Grammy winner, she was named America’s Best Songwriter by Time Magazine in 2001; the catalog has only added to that case since.
Venue & Logistics
The Hunter Center at MASS MoCA is a 900-seat multi-venue performance space in North Adams, MA, across the Massachusetts border from the Capital Region. FreshGrass has paused its annual September festival until 2027; this October show is part of the FreshGrass Presents programming that fills the gap. The show is seated.
Tickets
General Admission is $59. Preferred seating at $99 is sold out. Tickets will be emailed two weeks before the performance; all sales are final with no refunds or exchanges. Maximum four tickets per transaction. Buy tickets