Clouds part for Thompson

Until recently, British folk singer-songwriter Linda Thompson’s career seemed nearly as tragic as the dire songs from her heyday with folk-rock giant Richard Thompson, her ex-husband and former musical partner. Absent for 17 years due to an anxiety-based disorder that prevented her from singing (or, for a time, even speaking), she performed at the Troubadour on Saturday, her first local appearance in 20 years.

The first L.A. stop on her U.S. tour (she was also scheduled to play McCabe’s on Sunday) was a low-key affair. The 80-minute set covered most of Thompson’s critically acclaimed new collection, aptly titled “Fashionably Late,” which blended traditional British folk styles with tasteful electric touches. The songs also fit her own traditions, ranging from wry (“Weary Life”) to doleful (“The Banks of the Clyde”) to yearning (“All I See”).

Relaxed and alert, Thompson showed no sign of the hysterical dysphonia that began in the mid-’80s, although she often referred to notes on her music stand. Flanked by two of her children, solo artist Teddy Thompson and vocalist Kamila Thompson, she seemed buoyed by their presence and their close harmonizing with her revered, still-resonant mezzo-soprano. Yet she proved she needed no crutches with a solo, a cappella rendition of a bleak number about an alcoholic’s battered-but-not-beaten-down wife.

The quintet’s spare instrumentation on accordion, organ, tambourine and acoustic and electric guitars delicately colored classic, vivid images of murder, sexual shame and undying devotion. Thompson injected some variety with the jazz ballad “Paint & Powder Beauty,” co-written with Rufus Wainwright. She treated the few older works affectionately, even sounding a note of triumph in the set-closing title tune from the Thompsons’ 1974 album, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight.”