RICKY Warwick's solo albums are a bit like Belfast buses these days: you wait years for the next one to appear and then two show up at once.
The former Almighty and Thin Lizzy frontman's last record, Belfast Confetti, was released way back in 2009
Next week, a pair of fine follow-ups will finally appear in the form of an impressive double set; the acoustic-guitar based Hearts on Trees and its full-band rocking companion piece When Patsy Cline Was Crazy (& Guy Mitchell Sang The Blues).
However, it's not like the delay between releases was down to the Newtownards-born rocker slacking off – far from it, in fact.
After stepping into Phil Lynott's boots back in 2010 for what turned out to be probably the most successful of all the posthumous Thin Lizzy revivals, Ricky (49) has been busy fronting the post-Lizzy outfit Black Star Riders since 2012
To date, the band (which also features OG Lizzy riffer Scott Gorham) have released two acclaimed albums of original material, the most recent being last year's well-received LP The Killer Instinct.
When you take all that into consideration, it's a wonder Ricky found the time to write and record one new solo LP, never mind a pair of carefully crafted and musically contrasting concept albums inspired by his formative years in Belfast.
"I think I've done more in the last five years of my career than I have in the past 30 years of being a professional musician," chuckles Ricky, speaking to me from his home in Los Angeles.
"I don't know what it is but I seem to be at a point in my life where the ideas seem to be coming thick and fast and everything's really really inspiring. I just had too many good songs this time around, so it had to be a double album."
Though they've now been 'officially' released by Nuclear Blast Records, Hearts on Trees and WPCWC were actually created via the PledgeMusic crowd-funding site.
"I found it completely liberating, a really wonderful way to work," enthuses Ricky.
However, their genesis actually stretches all the way back to a freezing cold Belfast afternoon on Boxing Day 2009, when the musician and some fellow Glentoran FC fans found themselves at a loose end when their traditional fixture against rivals Linfield was cancelled due to bad weather.
"The whole thing was hatched in the pub," Ricky tells me of his first solo project involving lyrics penned by someone other than himself.
"I ended up in The Elk in Dundonald with a mate of mine, Sam Robinson, who told me he'd been writing some words that maybe I'd like to take a look at.
"I think he was a bit reluctant to show them to me, but when he did, my jaw hit the floor. It was brilliant stuff and I immediately told him I'd like to write some music and melodies for them."
Ricky and Sam had enjoyed a similar working class upbringing in east Belfast, although they never knew each other at the time.
As their collaboration progressed, this common ground proved to be creatively fertile territory.
"We're roughly the same age, we had the same upbringing, we follow the same football team," explains Ricky.
"So we decided that we should write about where we're from. We started writing about our experiences of growing up in Belfast during the '70s and '80s and then branching out a bit more into more worldly ideas and ideals – stories we'd been told by friends and relatives.
"It was an accident that brought us together and when things happen like that without thinking too much about it, you tend to get great results. Sam would send me a lyric and I would usually have the finished song an hour later – it was never laboured. We work really well together."
As well as Tank McCullough Saturdays, the pair's nostalgia-tinged tribute to the legendary Glens player, one of the most eye/ear-catching songs Ricky and Sam came up with was the Hearts on Trees opener, Presbyterian Homesick Blues.
"I came up with that title," laughs Ricky. "Obviously it's a nod to Dylan, but I was thinking about my strict Presbyterian upbringing in Belfast and how Sundays in the '70s would fill you with dread.
"You just knew it was going to be church, Sunday school and nothing else to do – boredom boredom boredom. I wrote a verse and sent it to Sam, knowing it would resonate with him as a Ballybean boy.
"Sure enough, 10 minutes later, boom – Sam sends me back the rest of the song, done."
Another contributor to the project was Therapy? man Andy Cairns, who gave Ricky another great title in Celebrating Sinking, plus a big chorus to go with the tune that's one of the highlights of his electric guitar-powered album.
"We've been great friends for 25 years and we'd always talked about writing together," he explains.
"So this was our big chance. He sent me a roughed-out chorus and a lyric `what was I thinking, celebrating sinking’, which floored me straight away. I thought it was brilliant.
"We've got this great thing in Northern Ireland of celebrating flawed genius – the Titanic, Alex Higgins, George Best. Somehow, our big successes are never perfect.
"Then there's also this thing about how no matter where you've been or what you've done, you soon get your feet put back on the ground when you come home. I love that about the place."
That might be true, but with the new albums getting rave reviews, a tour supporting his heroes Stiff Little Fingers imminent (no Irish dates, sadly) and yet more Thin Lizzy dates looming in the summer, it'll surely be a while yet before Ricky Warwick comes back down to Earth again – in Belfast or anywhere else.
"Maybe it's an old age thing or just being content with where I'm at in life, but I'm aware that this might not last forever," he tells me.
"I'm just trying to make hay while the sun shines."
Hearts on Trees and When Patsy Cline Was Crazy (& Guy Mitchell Sang The Blues) are out on February 26, available via RickyWarwick.com
