A long time stalwart of the national music scene, Valdy will appear in Revelstoke to wow audience members of all ages.

Like a lover who never complains it’s easy to take Valdy for granted.

With more than a dozen albums, two Juno Awards and a touring schedule that would chafe contenders half his age Valdy (born Paul Valdemar Horsdal in Ottawa, 1945) has ensured his position as Canadian elder statesman in the firmament of an international folk music scene owing debt to his ever present originality and perseverance.

His name easily merits mention in the same breath as celebrated natives like Gordon Lightfoot, Buffy St. Marie or Murray McLaughlin but in conversation Valdy comes across as a wry but road weary troubadour still waiting on the big break he’s not certain he deserves or even wants.

“People keep asking for an instrumental disc but I’m not sure I’m good enough to pull it off,” the self effacing performer said from a ferry en-route to yet another gig.

“I like to keep things interesting for myself. If I’m enjoying it I hope audiences will too ... I’m 63 but feel as though I’m a dyslexic 36 year-old.”

Valdy appears in concert on Saturday, June 27 on Stage A at the Revelstoke Music Festival.

“People want to hear the older songs,” he said. “When they hear them it makes for a comfort zone where they’re more willing to accept the newer material.”

There’s plenty of hits to choose from including Rock and Roll Song from 1972’s breakout album Country Man, that documents rejection experienced on stage following a rock act at a ‘60s folk festival.

Then, as now, Valdy is a realist about the business, and his place within it, and happy to set aside compliments while lauding some of the talented performers he’s met and played with along the way.

Though best known for his well crafted folk material, Valdy’s music reveals he’s far from content to rest on his laurels. Collaboration with The Hometown Band brought elements of rock and jazz to the mix and he’s made appearances for children and on occasion with symphony orchestras.

Asked what he considers a highlight from what is, by any measure, a long and storied career Valdy doesn’t hesitate.

Performance at the 1976 International Song Festival in Sopot, Poland “stands out from the fog above all the rest,” he said. “I was a musical emissary from Canada, though it wasn’t official, playing for people behind the Iron Curtain. There was an amazing Cuban pianist there. We couldn’t talk to each other but everyone was getting together enjoying music and we were able to supersede all those boundaries. We were playing in a room off to the side and a manager came in and told us to ‘shut up’ we were disturbing the show out front.”

Thought it came as surprise that his second choice for most memorable moment is Barack Obama’s recent inauguration address it shouldn’t have.

After all folk music carries a long and proud tradition of challenging political power to affect the type of change Obama espouses and Valdy himself has penned such tunes as Living Next to a Candy Store (re: the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement) and Ten Little White Men — The Ballad of Meech Lake.

“My whole day has been glistening. There’s definitely going to be a healing trend. The light is returning,” said Valdy on Tuesday following Obama’s historic speech.

Fans in attendance can expect a show filled with enthusiasm.