The man who once took us “Eight Miles High” has spent the past few years rummaging through his musical basement.

        Leading the Byrds in the 1960s, Roger McGuinn pioneered a folk/rock fusion that continues to inspire bands 35 years later, including Tom Petty, Counting Crows, Wilco and Cincinnati's own Stapletons. Now he's gone back to his coffeehouse roots for his latest CD, Treasures From the Folk Den (Appleseed).

McGuinn

        The 18-song project features the singer/12-string guitarist performing traditional tunes with folk icons Pete Seeger and Odetta as well as members of folk's new generation such as Eliza Carthy. Tonight, he'll do them solo at the 20th Century.

        “I feel very comfortable being a folksinger right now at this stage of my life,” says Mr. McGuinn, a youthful 59. “Not that I won't ever do another rock CD. I've got a lot of people asking me to do another Rickenbacker-oriented rock CD, and I've got a lot of material for that.”

        He also has enough material for Treasures From the Folk Den Vol. II. Since 1995, he's been posting a song a month on his www.folkden.com Web site. “I've got 70 songs on there,” says Mr. McGuinn, an Internet pioneer who had one of the first forms of e-mail in 1982.

        The follow-up may include more contemporary artists such as Wilco. He planned that for the first album, he explains, “But we just didn't have time for it or room on the CD, unless we wanted to make it a double CD.”

IF YOU GO

Who: Roger McGuinn When: 8 p.m. today Where: 20th Century, Oakley Square Tickets: $20 Information: 779-9462 or 731-8000

        He's encouraged by the revival in folk and Americana, which reached new heights this year with the multiplatinum success of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack.

        “People are getting back to roots music and it's commercially acceptable now,” he says. “It's a far cry from six years ago, when I started the Folk Den.”
       

Back to thinking

        The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer (Class of '91) sees the roots revival as part of the pop-music process.

        “I think it's cyclical. People get into mindless dance music for a while and then they get tired of that and they get into thinking music for a while and they get tired of thinking and they go back to mindless dancing. I think we're getting out of the mindless dance music, rap and hip-hop and all that, and getting back to some music that you can think about.”

        But one thing has changed, he says — the way people get that music. Back when Mr. McGuinn (then “Jim”), David Crosby, Gene Clark, Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke formed the first Byrds, the only way to go was a major label.

        “Signing a record deal with a big company is not that big a deal anymore. There are ways around it now, which is great,” Mr. McGuinn says, adding that he's considering releasing his new material “on MP3.com or some kind of low-key way.”
       

Patriotic piece

        He's done that with his newest recording, “America For Me,” based on a patriotic 19th century poem by Henry Van Dyke. He'd written the music to it in the '80s but recorded it shortly after Sept. 11, “in a state of shock and depression, sadness about the world changing for the worse.” (It's also available on www.folkden.com.)

        He sees some good things in the wake of the attacks, including “a new solidarity in America. I see secular people talking about God. People need that. People need meditation and spiritual enlightenment.”

        While he can't guarantee that tonight, he does promise to provide the full McGuinn.

        “I do everything. I do some of my own stuff from the Treasures From the Folk Den; I do Byrd songs and things from my solo projects over the years.”
       

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