Music of, for and by the Folk

Ever since Bob Dylan came along, the singer who writes his or her own songs has been considered the very heart of rock music.

That view leaves veteran Scottish folkie Dick Gaughan shaking his head.

“Like the great Dave Van Ronk said, ‘For every songwriter, we need a thousand song interpreters,’ ” Gaughan said by phone earlier this week before a concert at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. “It takes great artistry to do a song justice. It takes a lot of study to really get inside of someone else’s tune.

“I am an interpreter of songs, not a songwriter.”

Not entirely true. Gaughan has written many a song during a career dating back to the ‘70s with the groups including Boys of the Lough and Five Hand Reel.

“All the King’s Men”--on his latest solo album, “Redwood Cathedral” (Appleseed Recordings)--rejoices in former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s defeat at the polls in 1997: “You used to be mighty, you used to be high / The brightest star in a self-made sky.”

Still, Gaughan, who also plays tonight at Shade Tree Stringed Instruments in Laguna Niguel--relishes the opportunity to sing the prose of others.

“We all bring our own unique perspective to whatever we sing. . . . Sometimes we can discover something that maybe the writer overlooked,” he said. “If we only sing what each of us writes, then all songs will die with the writer.”

Gaughan was born in Glasgow, raised in Leith and lives in Edinburgh. He grew up in a working-class family, listening to traditional Irish, Scottish and English ballads and, later, to the politically charged folk music of Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, among others.

While much of Gaughan’s work is driven by his left-leaning political views and Scottish nationalism, he also has a way with ballads, particularly the love songs of Robert Burns.

“Folk music is stories about ordinary people and the things in our world that concern us . . . our struggles and fears, desires and dreams,” he said. “To me, love songs and politics are inseparable. . . . To make distinctions between the two is arbitrary and often only manipulative.

“What is a love song anyway?” he asked. “Is it the adolescent fantasies heard on pop music radio today? Man, I’m too old for that.”

More important, Gaughan said, is to understand that artistry--not attitude--makes a song last, whether it’s about love or politics.

“Good politics won’t excuse bad art,” he said. “I’m a musician, not a journalist. It’s my job to play and sing and make sure my guitar is in tune. The material needs to be entertaining--that is, musically appealing without sounding strident.

“It’s not easy,” he said, “but nothing spoils a well-intended idea like getting up on your soapbox to preach it.”

* Dick Gaughan plays tonight at Shade Tree Stringed Instruments, 28062 Forbes Road, Laguna Niguel. 7:30 p.m. $18. (949) 364-5270.