Syd Straw's back on tour after 20 years

Until a few weeks ago, Syd Straw hadn't been on a proper tour for 20 years. The singer-songwriter with the earthy, forceful, bittersweet voice came to prominence in the mid-'80s singing with the Golden Palominos, the Anton Fier-led collective, with a rotating cast that included Michael Stipe, Matthew Sweet, and Richard Thompson.

A singer's singer, Straw has a lengthy resume as a backing vocalist and duet partner that includes work with Rickie Lee Jones, the Go-Betweens' Grant McLennan, Wilco, Dave Alvin, and numerous others. She had a recurring role as an algebra teacher in the Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete. She released three underheard solo albums, the last in 2008, but then retreated from the music industry.

She kept busy. She held elected office as constable in her longtime home of Weston, Vt. She wrote (prose and songs) and made furniture. She worked various jobs. She ventured out to perform the occasional show, including the annual Valentine's Day Heartwreck Show in New York, but otherwise kept a low musical profile.

"In my little town, they think I'm just some kook who works at the library part time and rescues dogs," she says on the phone before a house concert in Indianapolis. "They don't know what I do, and that's fine by me. What's wrong with a little mystery? What's wrong with doing as many interesting things as possible?"

Not long ago, she began to hear the calling to get back on stage.

"I was sitting around in my beautiful little shack in Vermont, and I was thinking that it would be appalling, that I would absolutely die of lonesomeness, if I didn't get out of there. And I heard my songs singing themselves and saying, 'Get us out of this nuthouse,' " Straw says, laughing.

Working social media and old connections, she booked a tour of house concerts and clubs that concludes Friday at the Tin Angel. Straw says she promised the Tin Angel's longtime booker Larry Goldfarb that "I'm going to give you a show that the people who are there will talk about, and so will the people who missed it."

Although her albums are out of print, and she has nothing new on the horizon (she says she has two projects in the works, but isn't sure when either will be finished), Straw is having a great time discovering that her audience hasn't forgotten her. She's touring with guitarist and singer Don Piper and reacquainting herself with her old songs.

"A song will float at me as if on its own independent rogue wave, and it will be in my head and stuck there. I think, 'I've neglected you. You're like my tiny neglected child. I won't forget you. I will play you first tonight.' It turns out, I have quite a few songs, actually."

In addition to her own compositions, which range from sweet country ballads to powerful roots rockers, Straw is an interpreter with impeccable taste, having done excellent covers of Lowell George, Buddy Holly, Neil Young, and others.

"I feel like the middle-aged matchstick girl. This is an extended dream. There's a lot of good will around surrounding this effort. There are people rooting for us, I can feel it," she says.

"When I get discouraged, I disappear for years. I don't have that kind of time to play with. I am in the middle of a new heyday. I'm on a middle-aged ship of love, and I want everyone to let me be their captain. I will take you to those azure seas and make you laugh and cry!"

8 p.m. Saturday, Tin Angel, 20 S. 2nd St., $20, 215-928-0770, tinangel.com.