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GREENSBORO — Lucinda Williams has told folks she loves playing the Carolina Theatre.

It showed Friday night.

She played for more than two hours and dipped deep into her songbook that spans 30 years of writing about love, sex, death and redemption in the small-town South, all lyrics ripped straight from her own personal journal.

She sang in her vowel-soaked twang, a voice as distinctive as a signature. She told stories, sang 19 songs, did a two-song encore, and turned the Carolina into a sweaty juke joint beneath its big chandelier.

“This is one of the most special shows I’ve ever done,’’ she told the nearly sold-out crowd of 1,050 at the end of the show.

No wonder.

On Sept. 18, she stood onstage at First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis and married Tom Overby, the former Best Buy executive she has called a “down-to-earth, Midwestern steak-and-potatoes kind of guy.’’

She did it onstage, between the regular show and the encore. Hank Williams, one of her big influences, did it in 1952 in New Orleans. And Williams figured she could do the same thing for her second marriage in Overby’s home state.

Then, exactly a week later, the Louisiana-born Williams found herself in the Carolina.

She and her band, Buick 6, spent a day on the road — they came from the Bluebird in Bloomington, Indiana — to swing into Greensboro for the only North Carolina date on the band’s 19-show fall tour.

Overby stood in the wings. Williams stood onstage. And in between songs, even during a song, she’d turn to the side, look toward Overby and smile portrait-picture big.

Then, she’d look at the orchestra pit — full of at least three dozen dancing, standing fans — hear someone holler, “Congratulations!’’ and see at the base of her microphone stand a bouquet of wild flowers set by a fan.

“Y’all are so sweet,’’ said Williams, a phrase she used three times during her show. “The next two songs I wrote came after my life took a turn for the better.’’

Those two songs? “Honey Bee’’ and “Tears of Joy,’’ from her latest, “Little Honey,’’ a recording she has described as her “happy album.’’

It was definitely a beautiful night at the Carolina with the 56-year-old musician Time magazine has called “America’s best songwriter.’’

Buick 6 wowed fans with a six-song opener. The band played all instrumental. Fans gave Buick 6 a standing ovation. But Williams was clearly the draw.

Two years ago, she came to the Carolina for the first time. She talked about it Friday night. It came 16 songs into her set.

She retold the story of Roger Cates, the Vietnam veteran from Greensboro. Cates heard “Are You Alright?’’ and turned Williams’ tune about her brother into a elegy for Cates’ war-buddy friend.

In April 2007, surrounded by rows of white tombstones, Cates sang it a capella at his buddy’s funeral at the Arlington Cemetery. He told Williams about that experience in a letter he gave to her tour manager right before her show in September 2007.

“Your words touched my soul,’’ he wrote.

Williams still remembers that.

“I’m not a big war supporter by any means, but (his letter) really moved me that night, so I’ve begun to dedicate this song to hundreds of others who have lost their lives in battle,’’ she told the audience Friday night.

“That gentleman, I don’t know if you’re here tonight, but you gave that song a special meaning.’’

Then, she sang “Are You Alright?’’ For Cates. And every other war veteran in the room.

Yep, the Carolina is a special place for Williams. No wonder.

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com