The world is at war and Richard Thompson, a child of the '60s folk scene, responds in his latest CD, "Sweet Warrior."

His song "Dad's Gonna Kill Me" is sure to be part of the playlist when he performs at Paliku Theatre on Saturday.

"I'm dead meat in my HumV Frankenstein / I hit the road block, God knows I never hit the mine / The dice rolled and I got lucky this time," sings Thompson on "Dad's Gonna Kill Me."

The song is told "through the eyes of a soldier," Thompson said. "It's really the soldier's experience, and about the difficulty in surviving. At some point it becomes clear it's an anti-war song, although it's sympathetic to the soldiers."

Thompson did research for the lyrics. "There are some Web sites where you can find soldiers' poetry, rap lyrics," he said. "Every war, every army has some kind of slang, dealing with the situation through humor and cynicism. It's really interesting language."

British newspaper The Guardian called "Sweet Warrior" "one of the most brilliantly gloomy albums in his long career." (Thompson released his first album, as part of the Fairport Convention, in 1968).

But, said Thompson, "I don't think of my music as particularly gloomy. ... The Guardian is very suspect. I grew up with folk music and with folk music you have mining disasters, murders, sometimes a mixture of the two. People say, 'Your songs are very dark and sad,' but that's just normal, incest and murder." The underbelly of life is the plain old belly.

The legendary guitarist said he'll play "a real mixture, half a dozen songs off the new record, and stuff from throughout the decade."

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine decreed Thompson the 19th greatest guitarist of all time (No. 1 is Jimi Hendrix) — yet he's nowhere near as famous as No. 50 (Pete Townshend), much less No. 24 (U2's The Edge). Does that irk him?

"I've never gone out of my way to be famous. Possibly Pete Townshend hasn't gone out of his way to be famous — it happens sometimes. I'm happy to not be famous, although I wouldn't mind being a bit more wealthy," he said, laughing. "If I keep giving away CDs, I'll end up in the poorhouse."

Thompson has lived in Los Angeles for 15 years (his wife, Nancy Covey, is American). He says it's full of Britons — 50,000 of them — in the film industry.

"Because I work more in North America than anywhere else in the world, it's a better place to have my family; I get home more often," said Thompson, who recently got back from five months of touring.

Plus technology makes it easier to be an Englishman in L.A. "Culturally I'm still very British. You can do that more and more these days, have the BBC playing on your computer while working."

Hawai'i is lucky to be able to catch up with him yearly — he has friends on the North Shore and has been making O'ahu his regular Thanksgiving week stomping ground, and playing a concert or two.

"I'm not sure which is an excuse for what — if the concert is an excuse for coming to Hawai'i or coming to Hawai'i is an excuse for a concert," he said.

As gigging for "Sweet Warrior" winds down, Thompson already has new projects in the pipeline. First is a song cycle (that is "too complicated to explain") that will be recorded live with "a string orchestra and stuff" in 2009. Also in the works is a revamped version of his "1000 Years of Popular Music," a brilliant joyride that goes from the traditional 13th-century English round "Sumer Is Icumen In" to Squeeze's "Tempted," that he'll take on the road in January.

"It's nice to just change a few things," he said. He's open to suggestions — how about a Thompson treatment of Andy Cummings' "Waikiki"?

But the big question: Will he do his glee-inducing version of "Oops I Did It Again" — which takes on a whole new dimension coming from a man in black leather pants and a beret?

"Maybe. It seems like the right kind of crowd."