TONIGHT at The Black Box, former Arab Strapper turned prolific solo artist Aidan Moffat will be performing some of the songs featured in his acclaimed tour documentary Where You're Meant To Be.
The Paul Fegan-directed film will be screened beforehand, giving everyone the chance to witness Moffat and band taking his lyrically personalised cover versions of traditional Scottish folk numbers (plus a couple of originals) to some pretty remote rural parts of their home country before a triumphant homecoming gig at Glasgow's Barrowlands.
Not everyone was enamoured of the Falkirk singer songwriter's updates of the material at hand – in particular, well-respected Scots folk musician Sheila Stewart was less than enthusiastic about Moffat's interpretation of her favourite folk tune, The Parting Song.
Captured giving off to him in no uncertain terms on-camera, the feisty 79-year-old then became an constant presence in the film.
Stewart died in December 2014, shortly after the tour finished – but her name is now on the lips of a whole new audience thanks to Where You're Meant To Be.
"I really didn't know anything about folk music at all before this," admits Moffat.
"But people always used to tell me there was folk elements to what I do, even in Arab Strap. I never really understood that because it was purely coincidental – so it was always at the back of my mind to have a look at it.
"The first thing I found in those songs was a real humour, which I didn't expect."
For a taste of what he means, you need only listen to the recently released live album featuring Moffat and co's performances of bawdy drinking anthems like I'm A Rover, The Ball of Kirriemuir and Big Kilmarnock Bunnet captured during one of the film's most improbably successful gigs at Drumnadrochit Village Hall beside Loch Ness.
Of course, none of the songs on the record featured Buckfast-addled 'neds' and other fixtures of modern Scotland's urban landscape before Moffat got his hands on them.
"Folk music has such an austere reputation, but that's more to do with the way some people value it – it's sort of sacred to them, and people are terrified to mess with it because of that," he tells me.
"But I just thought, if I'm going to sing these songs I've got to do something to make them my own. So the natural thing to do it to apply them to your own life."
Happily, the ex-Arab Strap man also knew where to draw the line in terms of bringing the songs 'up to date':
"I didn't want to do anything modern with the music," he explains of the traditional instrumentation employed for the project.
"I think it was important to keep the music pretty simple and straightforward, as it was originally.
"I didnae want to do some sort of 'dance fusion' thing, like 'let's evolve this music'. It's not really about that, it's about the songs themselves."
As for the overall theme of the film and project, with the issue of Scottish independence having been very much in the air back in 2014, it seems the question of evolving national identity also inspired Where You're Meant To Be.
"There was always a germ of an idea to do something that looked at that schism in Scotland's schizophrenic cultural identity, that push and pull between British and national identity," reveals Moffat, who admits to "having a total wobble" the night before September 2014's referendum.
"Myself and my friend Malcolm (Middleton, ex-Arab Strap), were on the phone for ages both absolutely s****ing ourselves," he laughs.
"We both wanted to vote 'yes' but we didnae know if it was the right thing to do. I still don't. And, as it transpired, it's probably for the best that it didn't happen – because I think we would have been utterly ruined!"
:: Aidan Moffat, Where You're Meant To Be, tonight, The Black Box, 9pm. Tickets £10 from CQAF.com
