Karen’s Quirky New York Gets a Little Bit Country at Lucinda’s Bar

The East Village just got a double dose of country twang and redneck fun at Lucinda’s Bar at 169 Avenue A. Lucinda’s is a honky-tonk juke joint and cocktail lounge, featuring live music, line dancing, karaoke, and happy hour specials, all with a true Southern vibe.

In case you’ve been a Sleeping Beauty for the past few decades and missed it, the multi-Grammy-award-winning Lucinda Williams has been infusing America with wrenching, sweet, brilliant music in her distinctive, catchy country-folk-pop-rock style since her first LP came out in 1979. Now she’s graced us with her Southern country aesthetic at her Christmas-light-bedecked, kitschy eponymous bar.

I’ve dropped in a couple of times. I’m getting my song ready for the live Country Karaoke on Friday nights! (It would be too “on the nose” to sing Lucinda, so my photographer, Phil Maier, suggests “Crazy” by Patsy Cline.) I love the vibe Lucinda’s giving—all cryin’ on the jukebox—with vintage posters, beer-and-whiskey chasers, and stained-glass chandeliers. Pearl the bartender served me a righteous “Rig Rocker” tequila-based cocktail, and I’m definitely going back for more!

Williams’s breakthrough album came in 1998, with “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” and this is when I first got in her lonesome car and hit the open highway. Time magazine named her “America’s best songwriter” in 2002, and she was on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2015 list of greatest songwriters of all time. Many more honors have followed, with “Car Wheels” ranked in the top 100 of Rolling Stone’s 2020 list of greatest albums of all time. The following year, she was inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame.

How lucky we are to have this luminary in our humble East Village! Williams was on hand to deliver a so-regretful-I-missed-it performance at Lucinda’s opening night in July. You might catch her in the saloon soon, as she just finished a tour on the West Coast. She’ll be heading to the UK in January 2026, and returning to America on Feb. 15 to tour the South on a double bill with rock’n’roll icons Heart, featuring Ann and Nancy Wilson on their “Royal Flush” tour. That’s a reason to leave on a midnight train to Georgia!

Williams is a true inspiration, continuing to record and tour at age 71, after experiencing a stroke in 2020. She’s my hero!

Never one to rest on a laurel or be idle for long, even after a stroke (!), Williams began a series called Lu’s Jukebox during the pandemic. She conceived this series to help independent music venues when there were no live performances. The six-episode series of themed sets of cover songs was curated by Williams and streamed for a fee, with proceeds going to designated venues. The first offering was “Runnin’ Down a Dream (A Tribute to Tom Petty).” Tom Petty passed away, heartbreakingly, in 2017. Each Lu’s Jukebox performance has been released on vinyl, CD, and via streaming services.

The most recent offering in the Lu’s Jukebox series takes the concept even further: “Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road!” Recorded at The Beatles’ legendary studio in London (short aside to illustrate my famous zebra crossing moment), the new collection serves as Volume 7 of her celebrated series. Kudos to Lucinda!

What’s so cool about this is that Williams is the only major artist to actually record Beatles songs at Abbey Road Studios aside from the Fab Four themselves. The covers are pretty faithful to the originals, but they have a new rock arrangement and Williams’s distinctive voice and interpretation as a singer-songwriter from Lake Charles, Louisiana. Doug Pettibone plays guitar, accompanied by a Hammond organ. My fave track is “Something.” I could swear I thought it was George Harrison singing, and then Williams’s voice bent and unmelded and became pure Lucinda. I invite you to support the artist by buying the record at Lucinda Williams Music.

And definitely pay a visit to Lucinda’s. Drink a shot, play a song on the jukebox, and maybe you’ll even get to greet Lucinda herself. Cowboy hats are optional.

Style Notes

I’m vibing country casual for a Saturday-afternoon visit: flared jeans, a strappy yoga top, boots, belt, and cowboy hat.

Karen Rempel is a New York-based writer, model, and artist. Her Karen’s Quirky New York column illuminates quirky clothes and places in Manhattan. For past stories, see https://karenqs.nyc.