The singer-songwriters who will perform at the "Decembersongs" show at The Ark on Tuesday are figuring that, this time of year, a lot of folks will want to see a show devoted to songs that have a holiday theme — but are not necessarily traditional Christmas carols.

“I love the traditional carols, but people hear those all the time this time of year,” says Amy Speace, one of the Decembersongs performers — and the one who dreamed up the tour.

As it turns out, back when Speace put together this foursome of top-shelf singer-songwriters — which also includes Dan Navarro (from Lowen and Navarro), Sally Barris and Jon Vezner — each of them had already written a couple holiday songs.

So, they also made an album, also dubbed “Decembersongs,” which will be available at Tuesday’s show, or can be purchased online.

At the show, they’ll perform tunes from the “Decembersongs” album, as well as a couple of traditional carols and one song from each songwriter that is not a holiday tune.

The idea for the Decembersongs tour was planted last February, at the Folk Alliance International Conference in Memphis. All four artists were in attendance.

“I did an in-the-round show at the conference with Sally, and we loved each other’s music, and then I did one with Dan, and that was great, and I knew I liked Jon’s work, and I thought, ‘we should all do a tour together,’" says Speace.

“We all come from different perspectives,” says Speace, a folk / Americana singer-songwriter who now lives in Nashville after spending many years in New York. “I have more of an urban, sassy edge to my music, while Sally’s music has this beautiful lyricism to it, and I thought that we balanced each other out.

“And Dan and Jon, I think, are two of the best writers on the modern folk-music scene. Dan is kind of a spitfire, and a kick-ass songwriter, and Jon’s songs have a lot of heart and social conscience, so I thought those two were ‘opposites’ as well — so I thought this line-up would provide a good variety of styles and material.”

Speace’s two contributions to the “Decembersongs” album are “I Want an Old Fashioned Christmas” and “Happy Holidays.” “On the first one, I really wanted to tap into the sound of those Christmas classics, so it’s sort of in the tradition of Irving Berlin, and that style,” says Speace during a phone interview from her parents’ home in Fredericksburg, Maryland, where she was visiting.

“And I wrote ‘Happy Holidays’ a couple of years ago, while living in New York. I was alone, I wasn’t in a relationship, and I was in Rockefeller Center, seeing all of these seriously happy couples. So, ultimately, it’s about taking a look at the idea of a ‘happy holiday’ and maybe re-defining for yourself what that means.”

Some other highlights from the album are Navarro’s wistful but inspiring “A Song of Christmas,” Vezner’s lilting and fanciful “Zu Zu’s Petals,” and Barris’s delicate, lovely “Home for Christmas.”

The Decembersongs performers have some impressive resumes:

Navarro began his solo career three years ago after spending 20 years as one-half of the acoustic duo with Eric Lowen. The pair recorded 11 albums together and were a significant presence on Triple A radio. But Lowen had to retire from performing in ’07 when he was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Navarro has written or co-written songs for the likes of Pat Benetar, The Bangles, Dionne Warwick and Dave Edmunds, among others. He’s also done a fair amount of voice work, both in English and Spanish, for animated films, TV shows and commercials. His voice has been heard in films like “Happy Feet,” “Ice Age 2," "Ice Age 3,” and “Robots.”

Barris has had a successful career as a Nashville songwriter while also recording and performing her own folk-and-Celtic-influenced music. She’s written such songs as “Let The Wind Chase You” (recorded by Trisha Yearwood), which earned a Grammy nomination, as well as “Reluctant Daughter” (Martina McBride), “Some Things I Know” (Lee Ann Womack), “I’m On My Way” (Kellie Pickler) and “The Innocent Years” (Kathy Mattea).

And Vezner’s songs have also been recorded by several of Nashville’s big-name country-pop artists, like McBride, Faith Hill, Janis Ian, Steve Wariner, Reba McEntire, Mattea, Lorrie Morgan and Diamond Rio.

The latest album from Speace, another acclaimed songwriter, was “The Killer In Me,” which was released in ’09, and it found her digging into deeper and darker spaces, both lyrically and musically. She has already completed her next album, “Land Like a Bird” slated for March ‘11 release.

“I would say that this next album has less of a rock edge than my previous two CDs,” says Speace. “I recorded those two with the same band I had been playing with or 10 years, and this time I wanted to go in a bit of a different direction, although it’s still a singer-songwriter record.

“On this one, I wanted to go for more of a crossover between folk and Americana, although those elements were certainly on my last couple of records as well.”

The disc was produced by Neilson Hubbard — who produced Kim Richey’s latest album, “Wreck Your Wheels.” They also used the same musicians who played on that disc, and Richey lends backing vocals.

Hubbard “co-wrote about 30 or 40 percent of these new songs with me,” says Speace. “I love his writing — a lot of his compositions have that soundtrack-music quality, and I mean that in a good way. There’s a lot of space in his music, which I like. But my own songwriting voice also comes through, loud and clear.”

Kevin Ransom, a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com, can be reached at KevinRansom10@aol.com.