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Shawn Mullins had just arrived in Austin, Texas and was preparing for that night's show at the Texas Union Ballroom, but he was already looking forward to the next one.

"I'm just about to finish one tour and then I go right back out on another," he said, looking forward to his next trek which kicks off Saturday, Nov. 15 at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights.

Singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins, best known for his song, "Lullaby," will play at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre Nov. 15.

Piece of Americana
It's been this way since the early 1990s, when the Atlanta raised Army reservist took his guitar and hit the road inspired by the likes of Kris Kristofferson and Larry Jon Wilson. His are songs of Americana draped over guitar chords, struggle and searching, circumstance and dreams. Whether it's the 16-year-old Billy Jo McKay who dreams of breaking away from his small Southern town, or the spawn of Hollywood desperate for purpose in his 1998 Grammy nominated "Lullaby."

Mullins' latest album, "Honeydew," released in March on Vanguard, was packed with tales about the old South in transition. Late last month he released his first live DVD, "Live at the Variety Playhouse." Later this month, the DVD will be followed by a live CD taken from the same show.

"We shot it in Atlanta, where I live. There's a theatre there that is kind of like The Vic, it's called the Variety Playhouse and I play there once a year. I normally tour around solo, but for this show I brought in some guests and had a band."

Hometown pride
While Mullins is always on the road, he has never moved out of Atlanta. He could have left for Los Angeles or New York or Nashville, but he's stayed at home, because, he said, "I'm proud of Atlanta and the changes it's going through. That's what keeps me there, it's the idea that we're evolving."

Asked about that evolution, he pointed to an experience when he went to vote early in the presidential election.

"There were a thousand people in line with me and nine out of 10 of them were African-American young people. I was like, 'Wow, this is good stuff,'" he said. "It's inspiring. It makes me stoked about the whole thing and where we are headed. It gives me hope."

Mullins said that energy is a new sort of inspiration.

"A lot of times I'm getting inspiration from things that either anger me or depress me, and I don't think that's unusual for a songwriter or a poet. But a lot of times I'm writing, trying to get out of a depressed place."

He quickly added that there has always been hope in his songs.

Need to perform
"On my latest CD I have a song called 'Homeless Joe.' We have a lot of homeless musicians in Atlanta and I've seen these cats my whole life. Even without a home and without a vehicle to get around in, they've managed to get themselves an instrument. They have this thing inside of them, it's the same thing that's inside me, it's the need to be creative and perform and entertain, and the fact that they can still do that in a situation that is so bleak, blows me away."

But now, Mullins said, he's experimenting with something else, something other than a depressing song with a glimpse of hope. He's working on a new song that will be packed with lyrics about the political climate in the country and the economic worries and security fears.

"And the chorus is about how I want to lift you up, I want to make all that craziness go away for a moment. And I got a feeling about that song. Every now and again I'll get a feeling and I'm usually right."