Carrie Newcomer is one of those singer-songwriters whose songs transport you, so much so that you want to hear her music again and again.

You can do just that when Newcomer performs at 7:30 p.m. April 9, First Presbyterian Church Allentown, 3231 Tilghman St., Allentown, and 8 p.m. April 10, Steel City Coffeehouse, 203 Bridge St., Phoenixville.

The Allentown concert is presented by the Moravian Theological Seminary, 60 W. Locust St., Bethlehem, where Newcomer holds a "Writer's Workshop," 1 - 4 p.m. April 9. The workshop is free for students and open to the public. To register: moravianseminary.edu, 610-625-7868.

It's not the first time Newcomer has performed in the Lehigh Valley. In a recent phone interview, the Indiana native and resident fondly recalls entertaining at Godfrey Daniels, Bethlehem.

"I know they [Godfrey Daniels] are a community treasure in Bethlehem. I know in the acoustic world, they're a national treasure," says Newcomer whose performances include coffeehouses such as The Ark, Ann Arbor, Mich.; The Old Town School Of Folk Music, Chicago, and The Freight And Salvage, Berkeley, Calif.

"That's really my roots, and where I started. I do a variety of shows. I also love that I have the opportunity to play in a lot of different contexts.

Newcomer performs in concert halls, colleges, seminaries and spiritual communities.

"I really love that. That it's always changing. And each type of venue has a different personality. I'm really grateful that I get to do a lot of different things."

At her concerts, copies of Newcomer's some 16 CDs are expected to be available, including her most recent, "A Permeable Life" (2014), also the title of a companion book, "A Permeable Life: Poems And Essays."

"My process [for songwriting] usually starts with a poem or an essay. Most of my songs start out that way. Then I sit down and write a song. Many of the pieces [in the book] are connected to songs."

Another of Newcomer's albums, "Betty's Diner," is morphing into a different form, as well, a stage show, "Betty's Diner: The Musical," to be produced this fall at Purdue University.

For her Lehigh Valley area concerts, Newcomer will be accompanied by Gary Walters, piano, with whom she's performed and recorded for 10 years. Walters, music director for Newcomer's musical, accompanies her vocally on some songs and may play one of his own compositions.

Of her music, Newcomer says, "I'm a Quaker folksinger. Some of my most held values are grounded in justice and equality and compassion."

She says that, while her music has evolved, the overarching theme is "finding something extraordinary in an ordinary day ... even something sacred, and the importance of paying attention."

Her workshop at the Moravian Theological Seminary is "Holy As The Day Is Spent." She elaborates:

"It's writing with attention to the small details. When we pull back all the distractions in our own life, what's really at the heart of it. We'll be finding something sacred in the ordinary day.

"This particular writing workshop also focuses on the power of our own true voice. When we encounter movies, songs, books or songs or art, we know when somebody is sugarcoating it or putting it out for shock value.

"But when a work of art puts its finger on the open palm of something true, it shakes the world just a little bit.

"There's something really lovely about writing from our true voice, and writing from the small details of our daily experience, and writing from a spiritual sense.

"We live in such a busy culture," she continues. "We have information coming from all directions. It's so busy not to be present in our life.

"There's a spiritual context to my life, and if I weren't writing from it, I would be censoring myself."

In concert, she says, "I like to do a nice mix of things. I do have songs that have become old friends. And I continue to play them. I love being able to play things from the newest albums. And I'm always writing, so there's usually some I haven't even recorded yet."

Newcomer says one of the grace notes of travel is discovering new locales.

"And isn't Bethlehem the home of Peeps? I love how every place has its own personality."

Newcomer is noted for her collaborations, including for her album, "Everything Is Everything" (2011), where she wrote and played songs with the India family of sarod players, Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan.

Her music and spoken word performances include those with author Parker J. Palmer ("Healing The Heart Of Democracy"), neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor ("My Stroke Of Insight"), theologian Philip Gulley ("If Grace Is True"), environmentalist Scott Russell Sanders ("A Private History of Awe"), Rabbi Sandy Sasso and Barbara Kingsolver.

"The world will tell you that we're so divided. We get that message a lot. There's more overlap and more places we can find common ground," Newcomer says.

"And I see that in every community I go to. There are people there who are trying to make the world a kinder place in every community I go to. And that gives me hope. And being a traveling folksinger, I get to meet a lot of them."