Music: Lucinda Williams rides solo

You know how it goes. You bring your new spouse to your parents' hometown. You're feeling happy, you want to make a good impression. And, if you're Lucinda Williams, the avatar of Americana music, that means you get roped into playing an unplanned solo gig -- with a Gibson borrowed from a local Guitar Center.

Thirty-some years into her celebrated career, Williams rediscovered the joys of singing alone last fall on a visit to her professor father in Fayetteville, Ark., when she ended up playing two nights at a little joint called George's Majestic Lounge.

"It's unusual for me to play solo. It ended up being a real positive experience," Williams said recently from her Los Angeles home. As a result, she's doing a few solo gigs before her band starts a tour, "just for a change of pace," she said. "This is an experiment. We had so much fun at that venue at Fayetteville, and there are so many other cool venues like that."

Like the intimate Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis, which will get three of her 10 solo performances. The sold-out shows next week will be her smallest Twin Cities gigs since her debut in 1989 at the 7th Street Entry.

Having been involved with Tom Overby, a former Best Buy executive who became her manager, for more than five years, she has spent some time in Minnesota. His parents live in Austin, Minn. The two got hitched in Minneapolis Sept. 19, 2009, in a combination wedding/concert at First Avenue.

"I love Minneapolis, but Tom can't stand the cold," said Williams. "Since I didn't grow up in real cold weather like that, I guess I have a more idealistic and romantic view of the snow and everything."

Her new album, "Blessed," will be released March 1. It's her third full-length in four years, a prolific pace compared with the seven studio albums she made in the first 24 years of her career.

While Williams is known as the queen of heartache, "Blessed" has a striking range of emotions and topics. It contains some of this century's slowest, sultriest love songs, including the smoldering, late-night "Born to Be Loved," the hymn-like "Kiss Like Your Kiss" and the accordion-embraced "Sweet Love."

For the first time, Williams sings about war. "Soldier's Song" is told from the dual reality of the man fighting overseas and his wife at home with their child.

"It's a subject matter I've been wanting to write about, but it's not easy to do without pointing a finger and getting your politics all involved in that," Williams said. "I'm better at the humanitarian aspect, writing from the person's feelings. I've always wanted to write some topical songs. Steve Earle's real good at that. It's really hard for me. It ends up sounding too corny."

"Seeing Black" is about suicide, the second time she has addressed the topic (1992's "Sweet Old World" was the other).

"What sparked that was when I heard about [singer/songwriter] Vic Chesnutt 's suicide," she said. "We didn't know each other really well. Of course, I was stunned and saddened. This is just kind of 'Sweet Old World Part 2,' but it has a whole different vibe. My perspective is going to be different at [age] 58 than it was at 42."