Texan country-rock songwriter J D Souther enjoys stretching himself in the studio.

"I've got a new album coming out on March 1 next year that we recorded in Nashville, though it's nothing like a Nashville record," says JD, who will be playing solo at the National Centre for Early Music in York tomorrow.

"On the record, it's a horn band playing, a saxophone and flute player and a trumpet player, a very different configuration to what I normally do.

"I grew up playing jazz and was a jazz drummer till I was 20, and so doing this new album was a little bit of a science project, cutting the record in a very spacey room built by an electronic genius, so we've got a very full sound like a Miles Davis record."

JD is best known for writing songs for The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor, and consequently one reaction to his new material was "how do you sell that?", but JD sticks to his guns.

"If you're an artist, if you don't try to reinvent yourself, you wither. You don't have to leave any of your fans behind; you just have to keep the quality high and keep your writing interesting," he says.

Curiosity led to one final question. What's in that name, JD?

"It's something that happened gradually," he says. "I grew up being called John David or David and old friends still call me John David, but when I started turning in manuscripts, I saw the name J S Bach and I thought it looked cool, so I started calling myself JD Souther and it just stuck."

  • J D Souther plays National Centre for Early Music, York, tomorrow at 7.30pm. Tickets: £16 on 01904 658338.