THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST SINGER WILLIAMS SEEMS TO HAVE APPEARED FROM A GENTLER TIME.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

Eclectic folk-pop singer Victoria Williams is an astute observer of the human condition and the music world, but even she wasn't ready for her manager's reaction when she turned in an album of standards.

``He told me, 'The label doesn't want an album of standards. They want your

songs,' '' the easygoing Williams recalled the other day. ``So, I just went ahead and recorded some of my own songs on top.''

Williams' just-issued third studio album for Atlantic, ``Water to Drink,'' contains lush covers of ``Until the Real Thing Comes Along,'' ``Young at Heart'' and the Antonio Carlos Jobim-penned title track along with typically idiosyncratic originals.

The album was recorded primarily in Williams' newly built home studio in hot, arid Joshua Tree, surrounded by her dogs, burros, chickens and expanding orchard.

The new effort follows a trio of self-released albums from the Harmony Creek Dippers, a side project featuring Williams and her husband, ex-Jayhawks member Mark Olson.

``If I walk outside, the hummingbirds stop in midair, look me in the eye and say, 'Thank you for planting all this fruit,' '' Williams said with a chuckle.

A characteristic observation. After all, Williams' most oft-quoted lyric from her 1987 debut album, ``Happy Come Home,'' advised listeners that ``every day is poetry.''

Her frequent musings on life, love and death saw Williams venerated by a crop of peers including Lucinda Williams, Lou Reed and members of Pearl Jam.

In fact, after Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1992 while on the road opening for Neil Young, some of those friends rallied to help her pay medical bills by recording the tribute album ``Sweet Relief: A Benefit for Victoria Williams,'' featuring Reed, Pearl Jam, Garbage, R.E.M., Smashing Pumpkins, Matthew Sweet, the Jayhawks, Live and Soul Asylum. It far outsold any of Williams' own albums.

Today, the 41-year-old Williams has good and bad days.

``I don't have a lot of energy when it's hot,'' she said. ``So I'll jump in the pool. There's a dry heat that coaxes me into sitting there. I'm OK. I've grown used to it. I have to take this shot everyday. Mark is wonderful.''

From her earliest days in Louisiana to her dues-paying, club-playing days in Los Angeles, Williams won the attention of everyone who saw her perform. It wasn't just the stirring musicianship but the refreshing, compassionate attitude and quirky sensibility of the woman.

R.E.M.'s Peter Buck once said that ``Victoria inspired me to stay in music.''

Although 1993's ``Sweet Relief'' helped make Williams better-known, she remains perhaps a bit too distinctive for the mainstream (even though her cover of the standard ``What a Wonderful World'' graced a Microsoft commercial). Boasting an unusual high-pitched (almost shrill) voice and that unique poetic bent, she draws from a wide range of influences - gospel, country, folk, acid-rock, jazz and pop - to create work that's highly personal.

One of her most enchanting collections is 1994's ``Loose,'' which glows with good feelings and love.

Sometimes, Williams - who plans local dates this fall - seems like she's from a different, far gentler time.

``People have lost their attention span and they're overwhelmed with music these days,'' she mused. ``They have attention deficit disorder from TV and being able to change the entire world by changing the channel. A hundred years ago that would have been a strange fascination. I mean, radio was a strange fascination.

``It's only been 100 years. I don't know with the computer - www this and www that. I get on that computer and when I try to look up one of these Web sites or something, it's just frustrating. It'll keep you there for so long. Check out this and check out that, sitting at this little screen.''

Actually, Williams said, the reaction she got when she turned in the tapes to ``Water to Drink'' didn't compare to the response to her original idea for the album's cover and title.

``I wanted to call it 'Fixin' to Spit,' '' she said. ``See, the original cover shot was my feet. But the guy in charge of putting it out said, 'We don't want to see your feet on the cover. We want to see you.' So I said any picture was OK with me. But they couldn't deal with my original title. They said, `We're not gonna call your record 'Fixin' to Spit.' No matter what.' ''

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Victoria Williams lets her sleeping dog lie at her home studio in Joshua Tree, where she recorded most of her latest album, ``Water to Drink.''