August 21 8:00 p.m. $20

"The influences never stop." That's Canadian singer songwriter James Keelaghan talking. Could be the slogan for folk music.

"My father was a great influence as a story teller, my mother for a sense of humour. I listened to a lot of Irish traditional stuff when I grew up, tempered with Jethro Tull, Neil Young, Bruce Cockburn, Joni Mitchell and Captain Beefheart."

Don't forget to throw in the history influence. Keelaghan studied history at the University of Calgary and his passion for it has inspired some of his most celebrated songs.

His debut album, Timelines (1987 Tranquilla Music) was a collection of historically themed ballads. On his ninth album, A Few Simple Verses (2006 Jericho Beach Music), he's coming at history the way a folk singer would, unabashedly paying tribute to songs he loves, many of which his father used to sing, many of which have no definite origin, all of which are part of living history.

Of course, every album features James' baritone, a voice that soothes, seduces, and packs a punch. It is an influential voice, in an oral tradition where performance is arguably where it all happens.

"I love touching people as a performer," he says. "Putting a song across so that people get inside the story. I love the immediacy of it, the feedback.

Obviously, Keelaghan is not having any trouble 'breaking' out of Canada, He has a devoted following around the world, with star turns at such venues as Denmark's Tonder Festival, the Hong Kong Festival and Australia's Port Fairy Folk Festival.

"Keelaghan's voice is so easy to listen to that the thorns in his lyrics can catch the listeners unawares," comments Dirty Linen. "I am not just a pen," James points out wryly. "I am a voice as well."

Voice and the love of song is what it's about on Keelaghan's latest CD A Few Simple Verses. On this album, James sings other people's songs, longtime favourites of his. "Some I learned when I was very young, songs my dad would sing," he says. "Some are songs that have been important in my musical development, some I chose for emotional reasons. All of them are lyrically superior, melodically appealing."

"And they tell good stories," he adds. It's all part of the Keelaghan's tradition, the vital world of rumour, love, document, and adventure that is folk music.

Don't try to picture this group gathered around a mic on a front porch somewhere. It's the 21st century in a living tradition, and Keelaghan is not afraid of change. "To record a traditional Irish tune with a couple in Australia and do it basically by broad band is cool," he says "Though maybe a bit non-traditional."

copyright James Keelaghan 2006