Jim Gilchrist: Impenetrable Stringtangle hits the road once again

Or so I'd been told, until I spoke to Renbourn, who assures me that he's been trying to retire from touring for the past 30 years, without much success. "Every year me and Robin have done a casual tour and it's been a lot of fun," he says genially, "so when the rumour appeared that I was going to hang it all up, Robin said to me: 'Don't do it,' so we've gone ahead. And my agent's just phoned to say they want to book another tour this time next year.

At 65, Renbourn, who lives near Hawick, says he wants to concentrate on playing and writing music rather than travelling. "I've paid my dues on the road."

Both men have more than paid their dues in terms of adventurous careers over more than four decades. Renbourn is the English guitar maestro who finger-picked his way through folk and blues as a soloist, with the band Pentangle, in his "folk baroque" partnership with Bert Jansch and in a partnership with American guitarist Stefan Grossman. The Edinburgh-born Williamson first made his name with Mike Heron in their gloriously eccentric and inventive Incredible String Band, later establishing himself as a multi-instrumentalist bard and storyteller.

As what appears to be their "Not the Final Tour" Tour gets under way, Renbourn recalls first meeting Williamson in the early 1960s when, as a hitchhiking 18-year-old, he ended up in Edinburgh looking for a place to doss and was led by an old lady "to Leith or somewhere and she banged on a door and Robin emerged. He had a guitar all painted with magic mushrooms and was playing Davey Graham stuff, which really knocked me out. We never worked anything out – as we have never done to this day," he adds emphatically. "It's always a loose experience; that's part of the fun."

Loose or not, the pair's first tour in the mid-1990s produced a live album, Wheel of Fortune, that was nominated for a Grammy. Performances by the two continue to be engagingly unpredictable – the term "blues harp" takes on a whole new resonance once you've seen Williamson playing harp, of the Celtic variety, while singing the blues. "It's kind of miraculous," muses Renbourn, "because I don't think Robin understands the 'R' word, as in rehearsal. It's always a 'wing it' job."

However, as the "Impenetrable Stringtangle", as he likes to call it, hits the road yet again, the pair have enough recorded live material for a new album, if they can get down to producing it.

Renbourn hasn't issued a recording since Traveller's Prayer in 1999, concentrating instead on composing, having gained a degree in composition and orchestration at Dartington College in the 1980s, and has been working with an Italian classical guitarist, Marco Rossetti, who is recording an album of Renbourn material. However, he has a studio album of his own which should appear, with any luck, in a few months, including some tracks with clarinet from Edinburgh reedsman Dick Lee. "It's taken me about 12 years to finish," he laughs.

So will this be the valedictory John Renbourn guitar album? He remains non-committal. "It's nice to have an opportunity to write for the instrument without having to sweat it out myself."

&149 Renbourn and Williamson play the Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh, on Tuesday; the Inn at Lathones, Fife, next Wednesday; and the Buccleuch Centre, Langholm, next Thursday. Visit www.john-renbourn.com and www.pigswhiskermusic.co.uk