Merritt intimate and bolder

Acclaimed alt-country singer Tift Merritt has stretched out on her new album, “Another Country,” broadening her voice and repertoire in meaningful ways without abandoning her roots. Writing her newest material during several months in Paris couldn’t help but inspire change in the North Carolina artist, though not everyone is happy about it. A few critics are openly alarmed.

But Merritt’s nearly 90 minutes at the Troubadour on Thursday suggested growth, not confusion. With her five-man band, Merritt went deeper into quiet, personal songs and rousing, full-bodied arrangements that recalled the best of the ‘70s singer-songwriter tradition. The result was intimate, if removed from country.

“Tender Branch” unfolded amid dreamy layers of gospel, and she sang the title track from “Another Country” while bouncing on her heels from her keyboard, as Doug Pettibone crafted an elegant lead on his pedal steel guitar. The sounds were soulful and driven.

During “Supposed to Make You Happy” (from her 2002 debut album, “Bramble Rose”), Merritt paused for a few simple accents on harmonica. She soon picked up an electric guitar for “My Heart Is Free,” a stormy antiwar statement fueled by current events but also inspired by a distant cousin who was killed in World War I.

“I wrote this song about what he might be thinking now,” she said, and then she was slashing out a riff, her voice high and strong: “Seems it’s always for a few men that so many of us die/You don’t remember my name or the girl that I made proud, and whatever drew me from her arms is nothing to me now.”

There was also extra force in “Morning Is My Destination,” turning up the volume a bit from the version on her new album, recorded in L.A. with producer George Drakoulias.

But the underlying emotion remained rooted in songwriting sessions at her Parisian apartment, even farther away from the Nashville country music establishment than her adopted home of Manhattan. That experience was present onstage, and it could be heard in the last song: a wistful piano ballad called “Mille Tendresses,” sung in French. The band responded with layers of warmth and Americana.