ARMED with his trusty guitar, Dave Clark is proud of his role as a 21st century 'travelling man'.

Like his hero Woody Guthrie, the former Alarm lead guitarist, writes and performs songs with a social conscience and next Friday he will be at Darwen Library Theatre.

"I hear there's an excellent developing scene in Darwen so I'm really excited about it," he said.

In the late Eighties and early Nineties, the Alarm enjoyed major success with their unique sound as Dave and lead singer Mike Peters adapted their acoustic guitars to give them a rock sound.

When the band split in 1991, Dave set off on a path of musical discovery - one he's still on today.

"What I've tried to do is take that The Alarm spirit and evolve it," he said.

"Back then what we'd now call roots music was all in the back rooms of cafes and a very underground thing. It was almost taboo to speak about playing on an acoustic guitar.

"But it was a very healthy and creative scene with people who wanted to do something constructive and something spiritual that didn't seem to be coming through the radio or be in the general sense of mass music culture at the time."

Having left the Alarm. Dave headed to America where he worked with the legendary producer Bob Johnston whom he cites as being a major influence. With Johnston he recorded the album Hard Travellin'.

"I was learning to do audio alchemy," he said. "Working with Bob gave me a very good grounding in that.

"Slowly but surely ever since I've been making progress and folk seem to enjoy what I'm doing.

"You'll find a wide range of influences in my music. The influence of Woody Guthrie is very strong but you can also pick up blues, country and Celtic influences too."

Dave toured the States extensively and in the process played alongside some of his heroes including Willie Nelson, Pete Seeger and even Johnny Cash.

He also was invited to perform at Farm Aid and a celebration of what would have been Woody Guthrie's 80th birthday in Central Park.

"That was one of the most amazing days of my entire playing experience," he said.

A second album Downtown America was released in 1994 and that has been Dave's solo output - until now.

"I've been working on a record for an exceedingly long time," he laughed. "but we are now looking at light at the end of the tunnel. It's been a long hard battle to get it where it needs to be but I'm hopeful it will be ready for release next year."

Some of the songs for that album may even feature in the Darwen show.

"Oh, I'll be paying a whole cross section of material," he said. "I don't really go back into the Alarm songs too much but there will be bits of Hard Travellin' and Down town America and stuff that has never been on a record.

"I'll be taking folks on a real road trip with a lot of storytelling and travelling songs."

Dave Sharp, Darwen Library Theatre, Friday, July 8. Details from 0844 947 1664.