"It was the best thing, in a way, but it was horrendous at the time. I was 29, I was really in love with him, I'd been on my own a long time, I'm a solo mother. I was in a frustrating place as an artist, my dad was diagnosed with motor-neurone disease and passed away around the same time. There were all these family dynamics to cope with. But all of that stuff, you've got to do something with it, or it's going to take you out.
"So that's when I really started writing. Instead of having a breakdown, I thought country music was a great option."
She says this with a laugh and a grin, but the music Lamb writes delves deep into the sadness and loneliness she experienced at the time. It was cathartic, but it wasn't music she was planning on sharing with anyone.
"I just kept it to myself at first, it was a bit weird, but I stayed up every night writing, and I did that for about six months."
Two further things happened to change her mind though - first she saw Christchurch band The Eastern play at the Paekakariki Bowling Club.
"I'd never heard of them at that point - though now they're good friends. But I was so lonely, I saved up my last $15 and went along to the gig. And I just stared at them, and thought, 'I want to do this'. It changed my life really."
Second, she met her guitarist Bryn Heveldt.
"He has no country or folk background, he's into electronica and he's a bit of a metal head, but he loves guitars, and he's very open minded."
He had his own studio, and encouraged Lamb to record the songs she'd written. They remained bare bones recordings initially, a simple catalogue, but then secretly, Heveldt laid down some ideas along with one of her songs. Lamb loved what she heard, so they decided to create an EP.
Since then, they've added three more band members, and gone from strength to strength, recording two more EPs, and opening for acts Rodriguez, Wagons, and Beth Orton - who specifically asked for the group.
"That was quite an honour. She was wonderful," Lamb smiles.
The natural progression was to record an album, which they did at The Sitting Room studios in Lyttelton earlier this year, and for the last month they've been touring up and down the country, sharing their stirring, swirling alt-country-folk.
"I don't know what else to call it," Lamb laughs at the label, "they're just what came out of me. I was listening to a lot of Gillian Welch, Bonnie Prince Billy, and Jolie Holland though."
"This is the opposite of what I thought I would end up being though. I thought maybe I would be in an indie band - I wanted to be Kim Deal so badly as a teenager. I think secretly I still do.
"But I think songs are songs, however they come to you. I understand it and I respect country music, I love the Carter Family and Appalachian music, I love how they tell these true stories of what's going on. But I never do my own songs quite in the traditional way. I don't know if I know how really, I just write things the way I think they should go."
Music profile
Who: Ebony Lamb, frontwoman for Eb & Sparrow
What: Debut self-titled album, out now.
Where and when: Playing as part of the Southern Fork Americana Festival at the Tuning Fork (next to Vector Arena) on Saturday, October 11 with Ryan Bingham; Saturday, October 18 with Aldous Harding.
