Singer-songwriter Victoria Williams had quite the day in Toronto yesterday.

Or so she informed her thoroughly charmed audience last night at about a half-full Phoenix Concert Theatre.

Over the course of the evening we learned that Williams had gone for a walk in the park looking for black squirrels, visited a botanical garden -- "It's aromatherapy of the realest kind" she explained -- had a sushi dinner and seen one of her band members (the fiddle player, who's a diabetic) end up in the emergency ward in one of the local hospitals.

It's this intimate sharing of the often personal details of her life which has garnered the perpetually wide-eyed, unpredictable and eccentric Williams a cult following.

Her songwriting incorporates folk, blues and jazz in a uniquely powerful way, while her engaging voice wavers somewhere between Billie Holiday and Carly Simon.

"I feel like I can trust you," she said to the crowd at one point. (This was before she took off her shoes and socks to rub her feet later in the show.)

About 450 people turned up last night, no doubt due to the strength of Williams' latest album, Musings Of A Creekdipper, from which she and her five man band (including husband Mark Olson on guitar) played many tunes.

After beginning the concert with an aborted song -- "I just couldn't remember it," she admitted later -- Williams launched into the new track, Rainmaker, followed by a trippy cover of Nat King Cole's Nature Boy.

For the new songs, Perriwinkle Sky and Allergic Boy, Williams -- initially playing guitar, harmonica and other assorted instruments while seated on a chair in the centre of the stage -- moved over to the piano.

"Everybody's known, or been, an allergic boy," she said, matter-of-factly.

Generally, there was a rough, improvised and slightly disoriented feel to her performance.

But whenever Williams spontaneously squealed or screamed right in the middle of a song it somehow seemed natural.

Opening the show was impressive singer-songwriter Chris Stills, who played acoustic guitar on stage alone while performing material off his critically acclaimed album, 100 Year Thing.

JAM! Rating: 3 out of 5