AMERICAN Midwest singer-songwriter Josh Rouse decided to hang out in Spain seven years ago and ended up moving there. Hence the title of his latest album and his band, The Long Vacations.

“What kept me there? A woman. That’s about it,” he says, on the phone from Valencia.

“I met my wife here. She was a girl I was really interested in and I said, ‘Hey, I’m going to spend some time in Spain’, and I’m still here, though we went back to the States for a while, so it’s been five years in total here.

“We have two kids now, two boys aged two and a half and four months old. It’s fun!”

Josh leaves behind Spain this week to play a series of British gigs with The Long Vacations, a trio that will feature Spaniards Cayo Bellveser and Xema Fuertes in York on Friday at The Duchess.

“After living in a place for a while, you get to know people and Xema lived two minutes from my house, so we started playing together and it just seemed to fit,” he says.

“He plays banjo and drums at the same time; Cayo plays the bass and melodica; and I just sing and play the guitar and a little harmonica, and it works really well on the road, where we all get on so well.”

The acoustic Josh Rouse folk pop of a decade ago in Nashville has made way for a 25-minute album of still acoustic but looser, upbeat, sun-tanned songs written and recorded live.

“Spain is always looked at as the Florida of Europe, and here in Valencia, the weather is wonderful, the days are longer and the Mediterranean has seeped into the music.

“Maybe I’m too close to it to say exactly how living in Spain has influenced my songwriting but the biggest change is having children,” he says.

“I don’t have so much time for songwriting, and as Tom Waits says, now I have to say ‘Okay, go away, it’s a great idea but I don’t have time for it now’.”

Is that why the album is a quick-fire 25 minutes, over and out?

“It just turned out that way. I had more songs I could have put on there, but it just felt right at 25 minutes and it’s a good time for short records. People’s attention spans are getting shorter,” says Josh.

“I think the audience will become smaller for albums, just because the world is moving faster with new technology.

“People now put Spotify on shuffle and listen to random things, but hopefully my sons will still want to hear albums like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Harvest by Neil Young.”

Josh says his next album probably will be longer. Maybe he should call it The Longer Vacations.

“As long as I’m still alive and have fans, they will want to hear full albums, not just a single,” he says.

• Josh Rouse And The Long Vacations play The Duchess, York, on Friday, supported by James Walbourne and Kami Thompson. Doors open at 7.30pm. Box office: 08444 771000.