AL Stewart may be best known for Year Of The Cat, but that was only one year in the Glaswegian singer-songwriter's career.

Indeed, 71-year-old Stewart made 19 studio albums between Bedsitter Images in 1967 and Sparks Of Ancient Light in 2008, since when he has released Uncorked, a 2009 collection of unplugged versions of songs from his back catalogue, recorded with long-time collaborator Dave Nachmanoff.

Nachmanoff will be alongside Stewart once more next spring when the Scotsman marks his 50th anniversary of writing and performing songs by playing Bedsitter Images in its entirety each night on the Back To The Bedsit Tour 2017.

Guitarist Tim Renwick will be there too when they play York Barbican on May 5 in an acoustic set that also will take in other songs from his musical back pages, including the platinum-selling albums Year Of The Cat and Time Passages.

Stewart came to stardom as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and '70s, developing his own style by combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of the great characters and events from history. He played at the first ever Glastonbury Festival in 1970, worked with Yoko Ono in her pre-John Lennon days and shared a London apartment with a young Paul Simon.

On his last visit to York Barbican in May last year, Stewart performed his 1976 album Year Of The Cat in an acoustic guitar trio with Nachmanoff and Renwick, and he enjoys this format. "Sometimes we sound like the Gipsy Kings, sometimes like a rock band," he says.

"Doing stripped-down versions of the songs also highlights the lyrics, something that's close to my heart, as one of my bugbears with a full band is that the lyrics can get lost in the big halls."

Tickets are on sale at £43.68 and £39.20 on 0844 854 2757 or at yorkbarbican.co.uk