Hart beat

GUITARS ring out, tops are flipped off bottles of beer and, slowly but surely, a song begins to emerge.

Occasionally, there's a quick call to Hollywood to check on how things are going among Tinseltown's A-Listed jet set.

But mostly it's laughter, sweetly-sung harmonies and tall tales of life on the road. This is Glasgow's Park Lane studios - birthplace of hits by the likes of Texas, Del Amitri and Deacon Blue.

In one corner is local boy Roddy Hart, a rock'n'roll troubadour with the soul of a poet.

In the other is Ryan Adams, Grammy-nominated alt.country star and one of America's most maverick performers.

The song they're writing together, in the wee small hours of the morning, already has a title. Ryan's decided it's to be known as A Girl Called Jo.

And when they finally stumble out into the daylight at 6am, with the tune finished and recorded, they've both got another soon-to-be classic under their belts.

"It was a pretty extraordinary night," recalls Roddy. "Ryan had been playing a gig in Glasgow but when it was over he was still totally wired for sound and wanted to go for a jam.

"We ended up in the studio with our guitars and a few beers, just playing for hours on end. Ryan was dating Lindsay Lohan at the time, so every once in a while he'd pick up the phone to call her.

"There was a recording of the entire six-hour session, full of song ideas, but somehow it's got lost so all we've got left is A Girl Called Jo and great memories."

Not that Roddy is ever short of material. To those in the know, the 29-year-old is quite simply one of Scotland's most gifted singer-songwriters, heir to the mantle of Neil Young, Jackson Browne and mid- period Bruce Springsteen.

Ray LaMontagne once told him: "You've got the full set - the lyrics, the melodies and the voice."

And country legend Kris Kristofferson is such a fan that he offered his services as a BACKING VOCALIST on Roddy's stunning 2006 album, Bookmarks.

He's toured with the likes of Teddy Thompson, Deacon Blue and John Prine - all of whom will happily talk for hours about his king-size talents.

But while he has captivated a growing army of passionate supporters, so far his big break has remained somehow mysteriously out of reach.

That could be about to change thanks to his brilliant new album, Sign Language, out tomorrow.

It features Roddy and his band The Lonesome Fire turning on their unique magic across a baker's dozen of brilliantly crafted roots rock gems like current single Send A Message, the country-ish lilt of The Wilderness and Fab Four-style epic When The Wall Comes Down.

"I wanted to make a big rock'n'roll record," he says. "Bookmarks was quite intimate in the traditional singer-songwriter vein. This time I was keen to make a more expansive record that had those gentler downbeat tracks but with a bit of rockin' out too."

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN OUR DIGITAL VERSION OF A-LISTED

RODDY Hart & The Lonesome Fire play Hootananny, Inverness, on November 17, Perth's Red Rooms (18), Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh (19), Glasgow's Oran Mor (20) and Libertine, Ayr (22).

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