In 2004, he launched his soon-to-be Mercury-nominated album Kitty Jay with a concert inside Dartmoor Prison.

On March 1 he launched its successor, Freedom Fields, with a gig inside Princetown Breweries. And he's just returned from a tour of Libya, where he became the first Western act the local Muslim women had ever seen and provoked what he can only describe as "Beatlemania - I signed a lot of hands".

Seth Lakeman is a folk musician for the 21st Century - with one jean-clad leg in the past, he is as knowledgeable about Dartmoor's pubs as he is about its history and as savvy about PR stunts as he is passionate about his music.

"It's being inspired by my local area and true events but writing in a contemporary style and mucking around with the melodies," he says of his violin-led modern folk.

"You see, a lot of people don't like to do that but I think the way to move forward is to muck around with the melodies to show how relevant and dramatic the words are. 'Cos that's what the heart and soul of it is, the stories."

A mixture of self-penned and traditional material, Lakeman's breakthrough record Kitty Jay explored the myths and legends of Dartmoor, and his beautiful current single, White Hare, is about a magical creature encountered by miners as they walked back from work across the moors.

"They reckoned this white hare would steal their souls by looking them in the eye in the moonlight," he explains. "I think they'd probably been down in the pits far too long."

But the majority of Freedom Fields (for which he cites his "big D-Day war veteran granddad" as an inspiration) explores the turmoil of conflict, war and freedom as Lakeman writes about local naval traditions, the factions created by the English Civil War and the oppression of tin and copper miners.

This isn't wet, airy-fairy folk music but nor is it dryly historic. It's dramatic, exciting and naggingly urgent.

Still, I wonder whether Lakeman's peers have ever, mistakenly, considered him a bit of a sissy?

"Trust me, if you walk out wearing a bloody pink jumper they'll knock you down in the local pub," he laughs.

"If you're doing something that's a little bit gay in their eyes my mates'll tell me, there's no doubt of that. But with the music I always tried to get a balance of keeping true to the roots and projecting it in a young way."

Despite his fast-accelerating fame (his champions include Ricky Gervais, Jo Whiley and Billy Bragg), Lakeman remains immersed in his local Dartmoor a "quite breathtaking place" where you'll have no trouble "getting yourself involved in The Lord Of The Rings".

He still goes shooting with the local farmers ("I don't know, should I say that? It's quite a laugh actually - as long as you don't do something folky like shoot your true love by mistake") and he still records in the kitchen of his elder brother Paul.

"It's just a normal cottage kitchen with an Aga and everything," he says.

"Listen closely in Freedom Fields and you'll hear a bacon butty being made."

Starts at 8.30pm. Tickets cost £10, call 01273 647100