There has always been an emotional vulnerability to the music of Lucinda Williams. Roots, blues, country, Americana, call it what you will – above all, hers are songs that find the tender parts: the taste of sweat, the scent of persimmons, the long drive thinking of a lover.

Tonight at the Barbican, that fragility feels amplified. A little over two years ago, Williams suffered a stroke, in the wake of which it seemed unlikely she would return to performing. But this evening she stands on stage, in blue jeans and gold-fringed black shirt, launching into a rendition of her 1998 track Can’t Let Go that acquires new resonance in light of her presence.