Lucinda Williams, “Stories From a Rock N Roll Heart.”

Lucinda Williams had a tough 2020. The 67-year old Grammy-winner lost her home in a tornado and later had a stroke. It impaired her motor skills on her left side, which interfered with her ability to play guitar. Williams has made her living for four decades writing and playing songs on guitar. So when she went to compose songs for her 16th album, Stories From a Rock N Roll Heart, she needed some help.

She turned to her husband and manager, Tom Overby, as well as New York rock stalwart Jesse Malin and her longtime road manager, Travis Stephens. She also called in some big guns to help with background vocals, including Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa and Angel Olsen.

Stories From a Rock N Roll Heart, her first album since 2020’s Good Souls Better Angels, is a testament to Williams’ resilience and longevity as a songsmith. The songs reverberate with determination and fearlessness. The rousing “Let’s Get the Band Back Together” features Margo Price and Buddy Miller, among others, on enthusiastic background vocals. Williams’ gritty rock has always been inflected with country flourishes. The honky-tonk piano and stuttering electric guitar here make it fit neatly into her oeuvre.

“New York Comeback” is one of the album’s big set pieces, featuring Springsteen and Scialfa. “You wouldn’t want to miss/ My New York comeback,” Williams sings on the chorus, as Springsteen echoes her. The song has the kind of rueful optimism that Springsteen himself often specializes in, so it’s fitting that he’s featured on it. Malin, who’s worked with Williams before, is often affectionately called “the mayor of the East Side” for the way he seems to know everyone in the scene there. Williams gives him credit for arranging the appearance of the Boss here.

Lucinda Williams’ famous throaty vocals have always conjured the idea of hard living and hard-fought independence. They have an added poignance now, considering her recent tribulations.

“As long as you got a rock ‘n’ roll heart/ You can’t be broken or torn apart,” she and Malin sing on “Rock N Roll Heart,” a bar band barnburner. Touring guitarist Stuart Mathis’ guitar roars and squeals in approval of the message.

One of Williams’ main strengths as a songwriter has always been her observational storytelling. This can be heard on songs like “This is Not My Town” and “Hum’s Liquor,” the latter of which features Tommy Stinson of The Replacements. Stinson’s voice buoys her own on this slow, contemplative tune about Tommy’s brother Bob walking to the liquor store each morning (a story Overby once regaled his wife with that inspired her).

“Into the black and blue/ Dragging demons around with you/ Everybody wants to see the crash/ ‘Til they see the red lights flash,” they sing together.

Lawrence Rothman (Amanda Shires, Empress Of) created a beautiful string arrangement to accompany “Where the Song Will Find Me,” a torch song to music itself.

“Standing in the rain/ In the pouring silver drops/ I’ll ride the whistling train/ And I’ll get off at every stop/ Because I want to be/ Where the song can find me,” Williams sings. She teases out “rain” and “train” with her distinctive voice as only she can, declaring her devotion to song.

Although she still isn’t able to play guitar, Williams’ unique voice was unaffected by her stroke. She’s said she was hesitant at first to work with her husband, for fear of mixing the business and personal, but thinking of Tom Waits and his wife Kathleen’s successful songwriting made her decide to go for it. Williams’ instinct to collaborate with Overby and other musicians to write these songs was a good one, and she was right to follow it. Stories From a Rock N Roll Heart has more than enough rock and heart to carry off its title.

Follow Rachel Alm at Twitter.com/thouzenfold and Instagram.com/thousandfold.