IT’S said that when Sam Cooke played Bob Dylan to a young Bobby Womack he simply didn’t get it. Cooke explained that from then on, it was not going to be about how pretty the voice was. 

It was going to be about believing that the voice is telling the truth. 

Calum Baird has such a voice — and a talent to match. 

His new album No Right Turn is a near-perfect, achingly felt and honest chronicle of relationships, society and life today.

To be released at the beginning of August, it’s a two-parter, with Don’t Go Sentimental on Me Now a series of songs about love. But these are no power ballads, he tells me. 

“Love is not always — or even necessarily — something that is like a Disney film. 

“Love is an intriguing thing and everyone has an opinion on it and these songs reflect my views of it being something which is dramatic, frenetic and pretty difficult to pin down. 

“I have tried to avoid the usual formula of ‘here’s why I have a broken heart.’ 

“Whether I’ve achieved that is up to the listener.”

The second part, Look Left, channels a more political tone, Baird says. 

“I wrote the songs as social commentary or observations intended to be thought-provoking. I’m not saying my music contains ideas which have never been considered before and I don’t write with that in mind.

“I try to make my ‘political’ songs witty and sarcastic — but still serious — and in a way that you can listen to them without feeling you’re being lectured but still get the point.”

Baird succeeds in a way that is significant for an artist so young. These are not “protest songs” or calls to arms but carefully crafted, intelligent and wry observations that paint real pictures. 

Backward Town, with its opening line of “Rolling in the doldrums of this empty town, sheets of rain and shutters coming down,” is one of many striking examples but, says Baird, it’s not about any particular place though his time in Falkirk has left its mark. 

“When I moved there it was in the Blairite era of capital booms, housing markets and shopping centres and it was going through a phase of gentrification. 

“Since the crash in 2008, the mood has changed quite a lot. The high street is emptying of shops and homelessness has gone up, as has unemployment. 

“The town looks depressed all of the time. This process of change has probably influenced my music and my thinking about the world.”

Baird recently played with Dick Gaughan on May Day and he is “an inspiration in terms of what politically motivated music can sound like.

“His rendition of Now Westlin’ Winds is truly sensational. The audience that evening were brilliant as well paying us all the utmost respect and courtesy.”

Baird went on to play to thousands at the anti-austerity rally in Glasgow’s George Square on June 20 — “an honour” — but he’s at pains to distance himself from the “protest singer” tag. 

“I wouldn’t say I’m that,” he says. “But being known as a political artist is something people are picking up on about me and I don’t mind that at all. 

“Some may use it as an insult because they have really bourgeois views of what music should be about, which is usually something to dance to or jamming with your mates. 

“But music — all art in fact — is ideas. Marx noted that everywhere in society the prevailing ideas are the ruling ideas and the ideas of the ruling class. 

“So all music is politically motivated whether it is noticed or not. Political observation or comment in song is an important means for disconnecting with the poisonous sycophancy towards capitalism which prevails in music just now. 

“Not all of the songs on this album are as ‘left’ as I might want them to be. They point out the bad but don’t offer any real vision and that’s something I’m working on for the next release.”

Baird’s a great fan of The Smiths — “fantastic lyrics of social comment and guitar licks which make you listen again and again” — but there’s a noticeable US influence on his music, ranging from Ryan Adams, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Phil Ochs to Woody Guthrie. 

That’s evident on the album’s excellent anti-war and anti-imperialism track The Ever Willing Soldier, inspired by Guthrie’s lines: 

“I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I ain’t a-gonna kill nobody.” 

Relating to such inspiration is one of Baird’s many strengths. 

His guitar and harmonica-based songs — sounding old and new at the same time — are thoughtful but not obvious, moving but not sentimental, caustic but not cruel.

He’s certainly not a one-man band — or lyrically easily pigeonholded — and he’s keenly appreciative of the contribution of Falkirk musician Robbie Lesiuk on the album, who also recorded, mixed and produced the work along with the Edinburgh-based Garry Boyle.

He’s a singer-songwriter in the classic mould whose music and lyrics slowly burn in your consciousness, leaving you satisfied while still wanting more. 

That’s exactly what No Right Turn does. 

As an accomplished and skilful album, it’s a worthy addition to anyone’s collection.

• No Right Turn will be launched on August 1 at the Mash House in Edinburgh, details: themashhouse.co.uk