American singer-songwriter Sarabeth Tucek plays the Band Room’s first concert of the year at Low Mill, Farndale, on the North York Moors, tonight.

“A dark horse if ever there was one, the spellbinding Sarabeth has been likened to Cat Power, Nico, Natalie Merchant, Hope Sandoval and Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis,” says promoter Nigel Burnham.

“She’s inspired Laura Marling, toured with Ray LaMontagne and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, opened for Bob Dylan, tangled with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, backed Bill Callahan’s Smog, and she evokes memories of classic mid-Seventies’ Neil Young & Crazy Horse.”

Sarabeth, who turns 40 this year, will be showcasing her second album, Get Well Soon, performing with producer and fellow guitarist Luther Russell.

The title is apt because Sarabeth has come through hard times: her drinking spun out of control, leading to a couple of car accidents, jail and legal troubles. “It was a rough road and it was unfortunate that it coincided with the first album, so I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I should have,” she says.

“I think when you’re a glass-half-empty person, you don’t believe things will work out for you, and when they do it’s psychologically difficult to cope with having something good happen to you. And so I self-destructed a bit.”

Could you have stopped it?

“I could sense it was happening, and it was sort of an internal battle where I would think, ‘Why can’t you be happy with what’s happening now instead of constantly thinking about the past?’ But there were good moments too, a lot of joy meeting great people over there in Britain in 2007/2008, where I would see things that I would never otherwise have seen. It’s just that I would like to have embraced it more fully.”

Thankfully, she now is.

• Tickets for tonight are available online at thebandroom.co.uk or on 01751 432900