Many critics have called Joanna Newsom’s triple-length album, Have One on Me, her most ambitious recording to date — and also her most accessible. But what’s changed? Her songs are still epic yarns: the title track alone clocks in at a hefty 11:02, and that is to say nothing of the triple-album presentation. With her latest album, Newsom expands her fairy-tale menagerie, introducing fables starring daddy long legs, jackrabbits, and kingfishers. And then there is Newsom herself, heart and harp in hand, still very much the hatter at this tea party.

Playing the second of two intimate (and sold-out) nights at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, Newsom set out to prove those critics right. Her voice has mellowed — as anyone who has listened to even one LP from Have One on Me knows. A sweet, reedy vibrato characterizes her new locution, an exceedingly delicate yet full sound that balances the playful mewling that has won Newsom devotion and ridicule alike. Seeing Newsom play live, it’s clear that she’s taking this new vocal approach to songs from her catalog, too.

One line from “’81,” the evening’s opener, could have served as a promise for the performance: “Meet me in the Garden of Eden, bring a friend/ We are gonna have ourselves a time.” In order to bring the idyllic sounds of her lush album arrangements to a live setting, Newsom brought several friends. Yet for such an involved performance — featuring strings, trombone, banjo, drum kit, mouth harp, tambura and a host of other instruments — the show never lost the feel of a mannered garden party.