Archie Fisher has been a towering figure in Scottish folk music for almost five decades. He's worked with many great musicians over the years, and for 27 years promoted their work through a popular BBC radio show.

Now in his 70s, he's in St Paul to release his latest album "A Silent Song" at a concert tonight at the Landmark Center.

Put a guitar in Archie Fisher's hands and set him singing, and he'll take you away. Sometimes it's to some wild Scottish hillside, sometimes it's back to a place deep in history.

Fisher's meticulous playing and his sonorous voice have captivated audiences since the 1960s. However he does have some critics close to home.

"My youngest daughter keeps saying to me 'Why do you keep singing about things that are finished?'" he laughed. "And that's true about a lot of folk song, never mind contemporary singer-songwriters. So I've probably become much more reflective in my writing as well as in my interpretation."

Fisher's new album is a mixture of new work and his interpretations of traditional songs. He tells of how he stumbled across a copy of the song "Lord of the May."

"It wasn't even a photocopy, it was a carbon copy," he said. "It was stuck in a [Robert] Burns book in a library in a house where I was staying."

The story is about a lord whose daughter is stolen by fairies, creatures who are far more malevolent in Scottish legend than they're portrayed in contemporary Hollywood. Fisher agrees it's a moving and horrifying tale.

"The Scots quite like that kind of mysticism," he said. "We are not really into happy endings when you think of it."

Fisher is releasing "A Silent Song" through St Paul's Red House Records. Red House President Eric Peltoniemi, a songwriter and performer himself, says he's been a fan of Fisher's work since he first came across it in the 1970s.

"He's a great guitar player but he has the ear and eye and mind for the blend of melody and great words, whether they are traditional or ones that he writes, or songs that he picks up," Peltoniemi said. "He's a great interpreter of other artists as well."

For someone with such a long career Fisher hasn't produced a lot of albums. There was a 20 year gap between recordings at one point.

"The studio to me is a very severe mirror," he said. "It's a totally different artifact from performance."

Despite being a little jet-lagged after a transatlantic flight midweek, Fisher is looking forward to Friday's release concert at the Landmark Center.

"I'll just sort of mutter a few things and sing a few songs," he deadpanned.

He says playing for U.S. audiences is very different than playing for his home crowd.

"In Britain, you still have to work hard," he said. "Because it's like 'Oh yeah, c'mon then. Show us!' In America they're much more accepting."

Tonight's concert launches a two week U.S. tour for Archie Fisher, then he's off to Canada to record what he hopes will be his next album with Garnet Rogers.

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