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...

"Is your death wish stronger than you are?" Lucinda Williams asks in "Little Rock Star," a cautionary song swathed in guitar noise that someone should instant-message to Pete Doherty, Ryan Adams and Amy Winehouse. While it shows that the 55-year-old barbed-wire country singer is wary of rock's trappings, Little Honey proves she's still crushed out on the music. On "Real Love," amid boogie-rock...