LOUDON Wainwright III makes his York Barbican debut on Tuesday in his first concert in the city since his May 2011 gig at the Grand Opera House.

The American singer-songwriter, who turned 70 on September 5, last released a studio album in 2014 when Haven’t Got the Blues (Yet) addressed such subjects as depression, drinking, senior citizenship, gun control, heartbreak, pet ownership and New York City’s arcane practice of alternate side-of-the-street parking.

You can't predict what Loudon might play on his first trip to Britain since April 2015 when he made a brief visit to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

"I certainly change the songs every night," he says. "I usually figure out what I'm going to start with, and then there's a lot of songs to choose from as I like to move the set list around to keep me and the audience engaged. Certain songs work in groups and clusters, and they make a really good 75-minute show now.

"Every night is a different night with a different crowd and you walk out on stage with all kinds of fall-back positions up your sleeve, but I just the take the show as it comes, with some bad old jokes that I crack."

How prominently might Haven't Got The Blues (Yet) feature in Tuesday's concert, Loudon? "Well, it's my latest album, but in my mind it's not that new as it came out in 2014. I'll be doing some songs from that record but also some newer songs that aren't on any album yet, and I also have this thing that I do as my dad was a journalist," he says.

"He wrote for Life magazine, which was a big thing when I was growing up, so I put my guitar down and launch into a selection of passages from his work and connect them with my songs."

Loudon recalls how he was a rebellious, surly young man when his father's articles first appeared in Life in the 1960s. "He was pretty famous, but I didn't read a lot of his work at the time, but then five years ago I picked up some old Life magazines in this hotel in Maine and was knocked out by his writing," he says. "I got this idea for the concerts, as I've come to his articles afresh. He died in 1988 but we're getting on just fine these days!"

Can Loudon see any links between how he writes and how his father wrote? "It was a different time, of course, but my dad, like me, had a confessional streak and his best stuff was about his relationship with his father, rather than writing about the Johnson administration, which he had to do a lot," he says.

"So there are similarities and I have felt that connection with his feelings about writing. He liked some of my songs, he didn't like others, but he always encouraged me, and as my father he was a big influence on my work."

Loudon learnt to play the guitar in his teens, learning the same five chords that he still plays today. "But I didn't intend to be a songwriter; I intended to be an actor, went to drama school but then dropped out," he recalls.

"Seeing my father work to deadlines, writing didn't look like much fun, but once I wrote songs and started singing them and people reacted to them, and I got paid 50 dollars for playing them, I decided to stick with it."

Now 70, Loudon "probably doesn't write as much as I used to, like a lot of things I don't do as much as I used to". Nevertheless, he can still write to order, just as he did for the American television series M*A*S*H in the 1970s.

"Recently I wrote from a suggestion from Jill Sobule [an American singer-songwriter], where we were talking about songwriting and bitching about not writing many songs now, and she said, 'why don't you write a protest song?'. So I did! It's called I Had A Dream and it's about Donald Trump," he reveals.

"He's an easy target, like a fish in a barrel, but it still feels good. It's actually out there on the comedy website Funny Or Die now, as we've done a video for it...with wigs involved!"

Trump's Presidential campaign may have been dismissed initially as a joke, says Loudon, "but it's turning into a nightmare" as the election ding-dong with Hillary Clinton looms large. "Hillary better keep taking the meds," he cautions.

Loudon Wainwright III plays York Barbican on October 25, supported by long-time friend, collaborator and fellow singer-songwriter Chaim Tannenbaum. Box office: 0844 854 2757, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office.