TEXAN troubadour, Keegan Mcinroe, is slinging his guitar across his back and heading for Swindon as part of his European tour.

Keegan has strong beliefs and is not afraid to voice them in his songs. His current album is Uncouth Pilgrims which takes its title from Mark Twain’s travelogue, The Innocents Abroad.

“Mark Twain’s pilgrims were religious in nature, the pilgrims on Uncouth Pilgrims are romantic. But love, despite being the assumed end goal of a romantic pilgrim, often isn’t. So sometimes the songs and stories called for a more gentle, romantic treatment, but certainly some called for a more base, lusty, and grittier handling. And of course, the way those more gentle and less gentle songs come through, will be filtered through my rootsy, musical influences,” said Keegan.

The songwriter will be playing two gigs in Swindon, the first at The Castle in Old Town on Saturday and the second at The Rolleston, in Commercial Road on Monday, both at 9pm.

It was while Keegan was at university studying religion and philosophy and foreign policy and existentialism that he discovered his singing talent.

He would sing along with his friends on drunken nights of student revelry but eventually caught the ear of a local bar owner who offered him a gig.

Since then Keegan has shared the stage with Leon Russell, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Phosphorescent, Otis Taylor, Eric Sardinas, Randall Bramblett and The Band of Heathens.

Despite his passion for politics, Keegan believes that performing to an audience should be all about entertaining rather than preaching.

“I don’t perform as a political act,’’ he says. “I’m interested in telling stories and painting pictures.’’ Both the Swindon gigs are free entry.