To say folk star Kris Drever likes to keep himself busy would be something of an understatement. As well as being a mainstay of respected trio Lau and one-third of Drever, McCusker, Woomble (DMW),the Scottish musician has forged a successful solo career.

After the release of his debut album, 2006’s Black Water, he was named best newcomer at the BBC Folk Music Awards and his follow-up solo effort, Mark the Hard Earth, was released earlier this year. He is also a mainstay of the live circuit, whether he’s playing with one of his groups or performing his own material with a changing cast of backing musicians.

Anyone with even a passing interest in folk should get themselves down to TwickFolk, at The Cabbage Patch pub, on September 26, as Drever will be at the club night to perform a set strictly made up of his solo songs with multi-instrumentalist Anna Massie – any DMW or Lau fans, be warned, as he won’t dip into those bands’ back catalogues.

He says: “I tend not to do any Lau songs at solo shows or solo songs at Lau gigs, but you do get people shouting out requests. I just have to say: ‘It’s not company policy, I’m sorry but my hands are tied.’”

After his current run of gigs with Massie come to an end, the rest of Drever’s year is shaping up to be typically busy.

He has a Lau tour scheduled for October and he’ll then team up with banjo player Eamonn Coyne followed by John McCusker and Donald Shaw for more solo gigs.

Drever says: “I love the variety and I think if I didn’t have a few things on the go then I’d get desperately bored and the music would suffer. I’ve got to chop and change. You become better informed by working with different people as you learn different processes.”

Drever writes and performs melodic, contemporary songs that remain steeped in the tradition of British folk. He is the real deal at a time when the folk tag is attached to any heartfelt warbler with a banjo and a hit single.

While he is aware of this stretching of the definition of what makes ‘folk’ folk, it is not something he is unduly worried by or precious about.

“The name of the genre has become mainstream because some people have decided if someone plays acoustic-ally it is folk,” he says.

“A lot of the stuff people call nu-folk, I’d call acoustic pop, but that is neither here or there. It is great that people are willing to accept acoustic music in any form, especially young people because when I was young if you played acoustic music you were not cool.”

Kris Drever, TwickFolk, The Cabbage Patch, Twickenham, September 26, £10, 8pm, for more information, visit twickfolk.co.uk.