Singer-songwriter Dan Whitehouse tells Tim Hughes that he refuses to sell his own soul for fame.

DAN Whitehouse is one of those rare creatures – a musician who makes music not because of any great desire to make it big, but simply because he loves it.

This softly-spoken Black Country singer-songwriter seems to come from a different age – a time when beautiful music was created as an end in itself, with no pressure to shift albums, fill rooms, or get rich.

After all, he says, he’ll be making music anyway – whether people care or not.

As it happens, people do care, lots of them, many of whom know what they talking about – including artists like Willy Mason, Joseph Arthur, Caitlin Rose, Peter Green, and Josh Ritter, all of whom he has recently supported. And, he is shifting records (releasing three EPs and a debut album) and filling rooms. Not that he would brag about it, of course.

“I don’t need to be a superstar,” he says in his gentle West Midlands lilt. “Besides, I already have a job.”

That job is teaching. But not just any teaching. Dan runs music workshops with vulnerable adults, uses rhythm to help accident victims regain memory loss, and holds jam sessions and sing-alongs for people with disabilities.

“I studied music at university and had a choice of going to work in an office, the media, or to go into performance and composition,” he says.

“I decided to go into community music, which is one of the few remaining areas where you can work as a musician without selling your soul.”

He left London, where he had studied and played, and headed back to the Midlands, to Wolverhampton. And he loves it.

“Graduating at 24, I was prepared to hang up the guitar and leave it to gather dust. But this work feeds my passion; it keeps me fluid and free and open-minded.

“As well as sustaining me, it helps with my internal tug of war, between the selfish artist, all insular and self-obsessed, and the community member keen to share my passion for music and writing.”

He describes his music as “raw, rootsy folk music with direct, confessional lyrics”.

“People say my lyrics narrate modern life,” he adds. “I let the lyrics be the leaders and treat each song as an island.”

On Sunday Dan plays the Jericho Tavern in Walton Street as part of a tour of intimate venues.

Very intimate, in fact, for Dan, who, it comes as something of a surprise, once played Reading Festival with his old band Sonara.

And while the venues – a mix of arts centres, cool bars and folk festivals – suggest a mellow existence for our Dan and his band, nothing could be further from the truth.

“Last month we did 30 gigs,” he says. “And they seemed to go down well with the audiences.”

Among his forthcoming dates is the Lunar Festival in Tanworth In Arden, held in tribute to the late Nick Drake, who lived in the Warwickshire village.

I ask whether he identifies with the tragic Drake, a tortured singer-songwriter who died after overdosing on anti-depressants aged just 26.

“He is one of several influences,” he says. “Though I’m a much more gregarious character. Nick didn’t like playing live, while I love it. That’s when it comes alive for me.”

Other influences come from the records he grew up listening to – artists like Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Neil Young, The Beatles and Bob Dylan. But mostly, he says, he is inspired by what he sees, and hears, around him, and whatever pops into his head.

“I use a portable audio device as a sketch pad,” he says. “It allows me to record riffs and chord sequences when I find inspiration.”

With interest snowballing in his warm music, bittersweet lyrics and wry observations, I suggest it might be time to get used to commercial success. He laughs.

“I wouldn’t want to fall into the trap of creating music because it’s in fashion or can be sold. In the music industry there is so much focus on style, but when I play - or do my workshops – music is just music.

“And doing what I do is a constant reminder of its power.”

* Dan Whitehouse plays Communion at the Jericho Tavern, Walton Street, Oxford, on Sunday. Also appearing are Pete Roe and Pale Seas. Doors open at 7.30pm. Tickets are £5 in advance or £7 on the door. Go to communionmusic. co.uk/live