IT was, says Beth Hart, "one of the greatest honours of my career."

It was in Washington DC, in 2012, when the Kennedy Centre honoured blues legend Buddy Guy.

Beth and her distinctive, throaty voice stole the show as she performed the heartfelt blues classic, I'd Rather Go Blind, with British guitar hero Jeff Beck - it's worth checking out on YouTube.

Together, they earned a standing ovation from the audience, which included President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, and the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin.

Michael Stevens, the producer of the Kennedy Center Honours, and the musical director, Rob Mathes, were so blown away by Beth's performance "and her affinity with her soul and her blues", that they decided to work with her.

The result is her latest album, Better Than Home, which is her best yet - and which she brings to Glasgow next week as part of a brief UK tour.

When the Evening Times caught up with her, Beth had been showcasing some of the new material on the road. Her fans seem to have liked what they heard.

She had initially been reluctant to play the new songs live, lest they be judged harshly, but her band encouraged her to take the plunge - "They said, 'What are you doing? You've got to play this record for your audience - it's a beautiful album'.

"So they encouraged me to start doing it, and since I started performing it, it's been lovely. The responses have been very kind."

Anyone familiar with Beth's material - her solo albums, her live work, her collaborations with ace guitarists Slash and Joe Bonamassa - know that she doesn't do things by half. If ever there was a singer who wears her heart on her sleeve, it's her.

Her backstory includes a substantial number of personal problems. When she was just 20, her older sister died of complications from AIDS. Beth herself has had issues with drink and drugs, and was also diagnosed with bi-polar disorder.

She has written about the bad things in the past, but for her new album she decided to focus on the joys on her life. The result is probably her best album yet.

Beth is candid enough to admit that she has often written songs about her pain - "but at this point in my life I was challenged by people around me to dig deeper.

"They said, 'It's okay to talk about the good things - talk about what you find that's beautiful as well as what's painful - but get to the truth'."

Long before the album was released over here, Beth helpfully tweeted the song's lyrics, which helped familiarise her fans with the new songs more quickly than would otherwise have been the case.

Fans miss out on such things when they download albums, she suggests.

"I can remember, when I was young, when I bought albums I couldn't wait to open them up so I could read the lyric when listening to the music."

The excellent title track, Better than Home, has a lot of layers, she says.

"For the listener, I chose two metaphors - confronting God, and the love for the road.

"But beyond that there are layers that are very personal to me, and that is, my past struggles with fear, and how the interesting thing is, once I faced the fear and walk into the dark, it is there that I find the greatest light.

"I think that's because, when I'm willing to face it, that's when God comes about me and says, 'You are not alone - I will help you through this'."

"It took a lot," she acknowledges, "to write about the joy and the faith on this record. On my past records, I tend to, for the most part, write about my fear, and running away, and darknesses.

"But on this album it was very different. It ended up becoming something that was about a lot of light, and about celebration of that light. It was very hard, because it was so different."

Other stand-out racks include St Teresa, written from the point of view of a man in prison, Tell' Em to Hold On, about how we deal with our fears, and Mechanical Heart, Beth's heartfelt tribute to Scott Guetzkow, her "rock", who has done so much for her.

The tender closing track, This One's For You, has Beth accompanying herself on piano and expressing her deep gratitude to her mum.

It sounds like a song that should be officially released every Mother's Day. we suggest.

"That's so nice!" she says, laughing. "I love my mother dearly. Before I'd even finished it I called her and sang her the first verse and chorus in tears.

"You see. I felt so ashamed that I had not told her in my life how much I saw her and how much I saw her love and all the good things she did for me."

As Mathes puts it: "Beth has the ability to write these songs that are confessional and in the singer-songwriter tradition, but really a cut above - and, emotionally, a million miles deeper."

* Better than Home is out now, on Provogue/ Mascot Label Group. Beth plays the O2 ABC on May 6. Tickets: £22.50, £25; box office: 08444 999 990