The Smoking Section has checked in with Lucinda Williams on multiple occasions over the years, but we’ve never heard her so happy. She’s downright ebullient. How has Lucinda reclaimed her joy? For starters, she’s engaged to a swell guy named Tom Overby, who just took over as her manager. She’s been tearing up the road with a brand new rhythm section, with drummer Butch Norton and bassist David Sutton joining her longtime guitarist Doug Pettibone. Sales of her latest masterpiece, the album West, are up 20% this week. And she’s over the moon about the performing five of her stellar records – World Without Tears (from 2003), Essence (’01), Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (’98), Sweet Old World (’90) and Lucinda Williams (’88) — in their entirety at some upcoming shows. She’ll perform the discs in that order, one per night, over five nights in Los Angeles (Sept. 5th through 10th), at the El Rey Theater, and five in New York (Sept. 29th through Oct. 4th), at gigs at Irving Plaza and Town Hall. Each night, a second set will feature a medley of favorites. “It was Tom’s idea,” Lu tells the Smoking Section. “And it’s a real honor for me to celebrate the history of my music a little bit, and have fun doing it at the same time.”

Currently on the road “in the hinterlands” of the Northeast — playing out-of-the-way gigs to extremely appreciative audiences – Williams and her backing trio have been prepping for the special shows, busting out rare cuts, some of which Williams hasn’t performed in over a decade. “The guys are rehearsing them at sound check and we’re tryin’ them out,” she says. “Last night we played “Big Red Sun Blues” and “The Night’s Too Long” [both from Lucinda Williams] and they sounded great.” She says she has a tendency to compare her earliest songs to her most recent. She says, “I’m thinking, ‘Boy, I’ve come a long way as a songwriter.’ But at the same time, there’s a certain kind of innocence and sweetness about those early songs that I appreciate. Other people do, too.” Lu says she’s excited to revisit gems like “Pearl” – “that’s really obscure,” she says – as well as “Which Will” (her Nick Drake cover) and “I Asked For Water (He Gave Me Gasoline)”. She’s excited to hear her new band’s take on the classics, and promises to “take the songs and flesh them out a bit and bring them up to date.” She promises not to “do like Bob Dylan does, and make up new melodies so you don’t understand the song.” And though Lu told us who she’s invited to join her onstage as special guests, we’re sworn to secrecy. It is tastefully star-studded, we can report, ranging from British powerhouses, country royalty and N.Y.C. punks.

As her current tour zooms westward, Lucinda and Tom will make an important pit stop in Omaha,Nebraska. “I’m planning on getting my ring there, at a special family jewelry store called Borshein’s,” says Williams. “We don’t actually have a date yet – but we’re already married in spirit.” Love has also inspired Williams’ songwriting. For someone who took eight years to crank out Car Wheels (well worth the wait, we say), she’s churning out albums these days. “We’re going back into the studio in January,” she says. “I’ve get even more songs.”

[Photo: Harrison / Getty]