Death makes for great art. But rarely does it make for peppy tunes.

Which is why Leslie Alexander was a little tentative when it came time to release her new CD, Garden In the Stones.

Many of the songs deal with a dark period in the Alberta-born, Vancouver-based roots artist's life, which included the deaths of three people close to her, including her grandmother.

"I was a little bit afraid of putting it out there because there is so much stuff about mortality on the record," says Alexander.

"There's a part of me that's aware a lot of people don't want to hear about that -- and fair enough. But it was what I was going through and I had to write the songs."

Luckily, Alexander has also offered a "spoonful of sugar" to help the medicine go down, via sweet, gentle country folk that recalls everyone from Emmylou Harris to Victoria Williams.

The disc, which she celebrates the release of with a show tonight at the Ironwood Stage, also benefits from the participation of a couple of Canadian artists who are also fans.

One is Barney Bentall, whom Alexander toured with, and the other is Jane Siberry, whom Alexander struck up a friendship with after Siberry introduced herself after watching the younger artist perform.

Recording a track with the latter is something Alexander calls "a mind-blower. Once I got over drooling and falling at her feet, everything was fine," she laughs.

"I have admired her so much for so many years, and to actually get to meet her and hang out with her it's just been absolutely amazing.

"And to find out that she's as cool a person as she is, has just been fantastic."

Alexander admits it was after one particular conversation with Siberry she was inspired to go home and immediately write Lay Me Down, a gorgeous song about accepting death as merely one part of the cycle of life.

"That's what life is like, right," she says. "You've got your seasons ... and sometimes it seems like winter's going to go on forever. But here it is, it's spring, I'm at my parents' farm, it's lambing season, and there's little baby lambs and kittens everywhere -- everything is pretty cool."