Jackie Leven

Doug Johnstone's piece in the festival issue of The List (Edinburgh/Glasgow) announces Leven's gig at Cabaret Voltaire in Edinburgh on 8 August 2008 (£8). The hook is neglect: while we heap plaudits on “underground legends from across the pond”, Scotland's own talented outsider remains unheralded. Leven laughs: “I can't get arrested in this country”, but his last single and album both charted in Germany and he does well right across northern Europe. Johnstone credits him with discussing the lack of homegrown success without bitterness; the 58-year-old Fifer would spend the next six months touring the world, taking in China, Australia and Canada, “almost always to larger audiences than in Britain”.

The writer places the work: in a career spanning 35 years Leven has produced an extensive and varied catalogue “somewhere between the wilful artistry of Tom Waits and the curmudgeonly literate folk of Bob Dylan”, all imbued with a quintessentially Scottish self-deprecation. After everything from psych-rock to punk he has recently settled on a consummate bluesy folk, with songwriting and guitar playing on the latest album, Lovers at the Gun Club, stronger than ever. In the past he did not have to seek out problems – the biography includes losing his voice for two years after a near-death strangulation, and a subsequent heroin addiction – but in 2008 he is found in cheery mood.

Leven himself says: “I've reached an age where you say, ‘Wait a fucking minute, am I going to trudge around the world being in a sulk?’ You've got to have fun and believe in your own songs, it's as simple as that.” With over two dozen albums he is certainly prolific, but nothing in the studio or on stage is ever carefully planned: he likes “the permanent sense of not quite knowing what's going to happen”. He remains enthusiastic about the new music he sees at festivals and gigs: “There's more effort being made now than for a while. After punk, people were all about attitude, but attitude is not very nutritious and in the end people want to be fed by their music. I know I do.”