How Lucinda Got Her Joy Back

In order for Lucinda Williams to write a song, the conditions have to be perfect. "Nobody can be around," she says. "I like to be totally alone. I get out my guitar, and I spread all of my notes across the kitchen table." In early 2005, being alone wasn't a problem. Her love life was in a shambles after a long-term relationship she describes as "really destructive and really difficult" came to an end. "Then I had this brief, uneventful rock & roll fling — just oil for the motor," she says. Her mother had passed away, leading her to cancel dates from a world tour behind her seventh album, World Without Tears.

Hunkering down in total solitude, Williams entered the most prolific period of her life — a blast of creativity during which she accumulated more than 20 songs. Cuts like the tender eulogy "Mama You Sweet" and "Unsuffer Me" (sample lyric: "My joy is dead") ended up on West, the somber, soul-baring collection that Williams released in 2007. But she also wrote plenty of songs that weren't as grim. Some of the more upbeat, rocking tracks — "Real Love," "Circles and X's" and the hilarious "Jailhouse Tears," on which she duets with Elvis Costello — form the core of her righteous and raw new disc, Little Honey.

On a chilly night in August, Williams is sitting at the kitchen table of her new home in the hilly L.A. neighborhood of Studio City. Her blue fingernails match her Doors T-shirt, and she's sipping a glass of red wine. Seated beside her is the reason her mood lately has matched the upbeat vibe of the new record: her fiance, Tom Overby. Unlike basically every man she's been in a relationship with, Overby isn't a musician. "That last unhappy relationship was the straw that broke the camel's back," she says, looking into Overby's eyes. "I said, 'That's it! I'm done with the fuckin' games and the rock & roll bullshit. I'm done with the bad boys!' "

Of all places, the couple met in a Hollywood hair salon, where Williams was treating a girlfriend to some new hair extensions. "We were the last ones there," she says. "Tom dropped in to get his hair cut, and he introduced himself to me. I was attracted to him right away — that sweet smile, those twinkly eyes, that gold tooth." After a night on the town, hitting the Hollywood spot Velvet Margarita and the singer-songwriter haven the Hotel Café, Williams was smitten. Overby, who has worked as an A&R director and an executive at Best Buy, drove Williams home. "The tequila went to my head," Williams says. "I plopped into bed and woke up hoping that there was a note from him. And there was."

Initially, Williams had doubts about Overby. His low-key demeanor troubled her, causing Williams to fear that a relationship without rock & roll turmoil might negatively affect her art. "To be honest, it was a big test for me after I got involved with Tom and we moved in together," she says. "I said to myself, 'Am I still going to be able to write songs? Am I still going to get inspiration? Will that part of me continue to grow and be alive?' Because if that part of me dies, then I die."