Oxfordshire has played a big part in the life of singer/songwriter Ralph McTell. "I spent school holidays in Banbury. I've played most of the county's music venues over the years, and my new album Red Sky was recorded at Barford," he says.

"I always enjoy playing here," he says. "Oxfordshire has a strong base of traditional music."

The shows are part of McTell's 30-date national tour and coincide with the release of the latest album. Following a successful CD of live performances, the new songs are his first studio output for several years. Best known as a solo performer, this time McTell has harnessed the instrumental talents of Oxfordshire-based Fairport Convention and other local musical luminaries. "Red Sky is rather different from my previous work with a real band feel to it," he says.

As well as the album and tour, the first volume of McTell's autobiography has just been published. Angel Laughter recounts his post-war childhood in Croydon and those holidays in 1950s Banbury the unfamiliarity of his uncle and aunt's Oxfordshire accents, the smells of the brewery and cattle market, his schoolboy fascination with the Oxford Canal (recalled years later in his song Barges), and the "magnificent steam locomotives thundering through on their way to London." Born Ralph May in 1944 (he took his professional name from the American bluesman Blind Willie McTell), he grew up in Croydon. His love of music was kindled by the skiffle craze and consolidated by his discovery of folk, blues and R&B.

After hitching round Britain, he took off to Europe and ended up busking in Paris where he met his wife, Nanna. Returning to the UK, his musical career took off. Starting in small folk clubs, by the 1970s, he had entertained 250,000 people at the Isle of Wight festival, filled the Albert Hall and played Sydney Opera House.

Since those heady days, he has remained a prolific performer and songwriter, his ability to express everyday things in poetry and music ensuring his enduring popularity. But he also writes eloquently about more serious issues and causes ethnic cleansing, racism, and injustice. "I've always championed the dispossessed and downtrodden," he says, pointing out that his best known song, Streets of London (a million-selling hit which won the Ivor Novello Award) dealt with the issue of homelessness. On the current tour, McTell plays a two-hour set, mixing numbers from Red Sky with his earlier compositions. Accompanying himself on guitar, his virtuoso finger-picking style draws on ragtime, folk, country and blues. "Most of my guitar heroes are long-dead black Americans," he says, "Although I was also influenced by British artists." On stage, he punctuates the numbers with humorous anecdotes. "The stories get people laughing, give them more of a handle on me and explain where the songs come from," he says.

Ralph McTell plays at Nettlebed Folk Club (01628 636620) on Monday and Wantage Civic Hall (01235 762644) on Friday, October 27.