Mark Stuart and Stacey Earle.

Stacey Earle was working on a new album when her father died in December 2007.

His passing was a real blow, to the point she wasn't able to write a note for a year. That creative paralysis only made her grief worse.

But eventually, that bottled grief came out all at once in a soon-to-be-released album called The Ride.

"It hit me hard," Earle admits over the phone from her home in Nashville.

"It took me a year just to feel like picking up a pen. It was that first Christmas without him. But once I got through that, the pain of just missing him, I started writing about it all, and once I started I couldn't stop.

"All that internal bleeding came out at once."

Recording her new songs was cathartic. Now that she's back on her feet, she and Mark Stuart -- her musical partner and husband of 16 years -- are going up and down the eastern U.S. and Canada, including a stopover at the Black Sheep Inn tomorrow, for a bunch of old-fashioned acoustic house concerts.

"Wood loves wood. Put us in a schoolhouse and we sound good," Earle says.

"We're playing all our old haunts and the people we've worked with over the last 10 years. We like to play small towns and take our act to the people."

Their DIY, Luddite approach extends to their recordings as well. Forget the hi-tech digital suites and iPod platforms. The pair prefer tradition over technology. They even recorded their 2008 release, Stacy Earle & Mark Stuart Town Square, as well as Stuart's solo guitar album Left of Nashville, using analogue equipment in an old barn to capture as much of their live feel as possible.

"As far as we're concerned, records are souvenirs to take home," Earle says. "I know record sales are important, but we're live musicians. We're more interested in how the music feels.

"They make records so perfect now that the human ear can't take it."

The novelty of being rock stars burned out in the 1990s when the two were Dukes, backing her big brother Steve, just before his descent into addiction and prison. That experience left them soured on major arenas, busy bars or any venue that isn't hospitable to acoustic music.

In fact, the pair have embraced the simple life in Tennessee so well that when they tour, they often stay and play at the homes of old friends. They also created their own label, Gearle Records, and sell online all their own recordings, including Stuart's latest DVD Americana Acoustic Guitar Styles.

"We try to be hands-on. When I was playing with Steve (from 1990-1997), we felt like we were on a treadmill. We're folksingers, so we can go as slow as we want."