For several years, British singer-songwriter David Gray was feeling a bit, well, gray. "It's a giant act of will" to make music, Gray said. "It seems to take a lot more effort than it used to."

Gray, 41, has been a working musician since releasing his first studio album in 1993, but didn't reach the American mainstream until his 1999 album "White Ladder" caught fire in 2000. Two singles from that album, "Babylon" and "Please Forgive Me," were slow-burning hits that were reissued after initial radio releases a year earlier. He was thrust into the spotlight for his mellow folk-rock hits that used understated electronic beats to add depth to the music. Gray preceded hip-hop superproducer Timbaland's similar collaboration with OneRepublic by more than a half-decade.

Gray followed his breakthrough with "Lost Songs 95-98" in 2001, "A New Day at Midnight" in 2002 and then "Life in Slow Motion" in 2005. Exhausted by nonstop touring, he took a break. "I wanted to let my own children recognize me," Gray said. "I didn't want to become jaded. It had become a bit of a treadmill. I was feeling a bit road-weary."

But only a year later he felt a rekindling of the creative spark. "The season suddenly changed," he said of beginning writing again in 2007. "I gave vent to things that I wanted to get off my chest. This band provided the vehicle for it, [so the] music is more hard-hitting."

The result is a collection of 11 songs that are among the most boisterous of his career, with gospel choirs and even Annie Lennox contributing vocals. It's the most rock-sounding music the folk-rocker has released, with his nasal, gravelly voice noticeably more flexible, stretching notes beyond his past boundaries.

Opening for Gray is Lisa Hannigan, whom Utahns might remember from her tour with Jason Mraz a year ago.

The 28-year-old singer-songwriter known for her warm vocals with a delicate upper register was a longtime collaborator with fellow Irishman Damien Rice before she went off on her own. She released her quirky, melodic debut, "Sea Sew," in late 2008, and received attention for becoming one of the few musicians to perform on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," receiving a "Colbert bump" in sales after being on the show.

In an interview, Hannigan said she became a big fan after reading Colbert's 2007 book, I Am America (And So Can You!) " but never had seen him on television because she doesn't own a TV. (That explains her album's artwork, which includes many of her sewing creations.)

Hannigan said listening to Gray's "White Ladder" was a formative experience for her, and the songs were inescapable in her homeland: It remains the best-selling album in Ireland's history, she said.

Sorry, U2.