Singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean sees himself as part of the next generation of Scottish folk music.

"I always describe myself as a contemporary Scottish songwriter, that I'm carrying the tradition on," he said by phone from his home in Scotland, where he was preparing to fly to stateside for a series of shows (including Tuesday evening at the Birch North Park Theatre in San Diego).

"You have to add your own comment to the culture," he said of his songwriting. "Of course, all the influences come in. I grew up with the Beatles and all that, so you add another level into the great mixing pot that is Scottish culture."

Raised up in the central Scottish county of Perthsire in a small village named Butterstone, where he still lives, MacLean is one of the best-known singers to come out of Scotland during the past 20 years.

And while he was raised up in a musical family -- "My mum played melodeon, my dad played a little fiddle, and my grandfather sang Gaelic songs" -- it was still a bit of a fluke that he found a career in music, MacLean said.

"I went to college to be an engineer. … At that time, we were playing in little acoustic folk bands. We used to run a little folk club in the town where I went to school. There was a band called the Tannahill Weavers, and they had just lost their fiddle player, and they asked, 'Dougie, do you want to join our band -- we're going to Germany next week?' "

MacLean said he often wonders how his life would have turned out if that opportunity hadn't presented itself. Still, he regards his three years playing fiddle in the traditional Scottish and Celtic band as "great fun," and it gave him the chance to travel around Europe while getting paid.

Having written his own songs since he was 13 ("Just wee things I played on guitar") MacLean said he wasn't fully satisfied with the traditional canon the Weavers played -- and eventually began looking for chances to sing some of his own songs.

"At 27, I kind of picked up the courage to sing a few of them in public, and they went down well, and I really enjoyed the process of writing and playing them in public.

"I left the band, and put the fiddle away for many years, and concentrated on my singing and writing."

Since his first solo album came out in 1980, MacLean has issued another dozen and a half albums and become a regular draw on the global singer-songwriter circuit.

And, interestingly, MacLean said he's starting to play fiddle in his shows again and even reintroduce a few traditional Gaelic tunes to his repertoire.

"I'm actually playing more fiddle now than I've ever played. I'm starting to kind of bring it back for a couple of bits here and there. I like to mix my contemporary songs with the traditional Scottish thing I've grown up with."

That too, though, is consistent with how MacLean sees today's ongoing Scottish cultural renaissance.

"It's very exciting at home at the moment -- the cutlure is thriving. It's a great place to be right now.

"There's a self-confidence that's been growing in the last few years, which is lovely to see. Scotland has a history of being suppressed. Our bagpipes were banned, and our dress was banned, and it's taken a long time for people to get their confidence back. There's a confidence in our identity rather than that old caricature of the man who won't spend his money. The younger generation are pushing it forward without losing their connection to the past."

The Dougie MacLean Band

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Birch North Park Theatre, 2891 University Ave., San Diego

Tickets: $30-$33

Info: (619) 239-8836

Web: dougiemaclean.com