Lucinda Williams played an NPR Tiny Desk Concert last year at the National Public Radio’s Washington D.C. office and you can catch her this weekend here in Norfolk at the Norva. The set is a real treat, with great songwriting and great performances. The first song is a haunting bluesy number, with exceptional musicianship supporting Lucinda’s gritty vocals. Stuart Mathis’ guitar playing is especially impressive, as he switches between slide work and fretting notes. On the second song, Lucinda picks up her acoustic guitar for the slow ballad, “Cold Day In Hell.”

Things really get cooking with the third song, “Protection” which gets a very strong round of applause from the crowd at NPR. It’s a great song, with a really great chorus. Williams picks up the guitar again for the last song, “West Memphis,” and sings about the now infamous story of the West Memphis Three — teenagers who were wrongly found guilty of murder in the ’90s and released 18 years later once new evidence was found. Again, Mathis shows incredible talent on guitar and he also plays harmonica pretty damn good. The rhythm section is also smokin’ throughout the entire performance, with Butch Norton on drums and David Sutton on bass.