Award-winning songwriter, storyteller, multi-instrumentalist and folk music raconteur John McCutcheon will bring his many talents back to the Boothbay Opera House for a performance on July 1 at 7 p.m. Longtime fans of the Wisconsin-born McCutcheon can expect a similar show as he's delivered in the past; a mix of the topical and the timeless performed on everything from the acoustic guitar to the hammer dulcimer. Though he's promised to play everything except the kitchen sink, don't rule it out.

“The people can expect a guy showing up with a ridiculous amount of instruments,” said McCutcheon. “They'll wonder who I have to bribe to fly with all of these?”

Hailed by the late Pete Seeger as one of America’s best songwriters, he was a late first generation folkie who studied under the masters such as Jean Ritchie (known as the Mother of Folk) and Seeger in the 1960s. At the time, McCutcheon considered himself a closet songwriter — guitar came first — with a style informed by the folk tradition that was all the rage on college campuses and in coffeehouses across the country. His first award-winning song was titled, “The Ponderosa No-Cream-in-My-Coffee Blues,” penned at the diner of the same name in his Wisconsin hometown.

“I learned to play guitar by inadvertently checking out a Woody Guthrie songbook from the library. I realized that Guthrie was the most ecumenical songwriter imaginable,” he said. “He wrote kid songs, historical songs, love songs and protest songs.”

McCutcheon has just completed his 38th album and will feature certain selections from the record along with familiar songs and stories from his career. As a prolific songwriter, he finds inspiration in the everyday, from the silly to the sublime.

“You can sit and wait in vain for the muse to strike but you gotta do the work, “ he said. “I've learned to respect the fleetingness of the muse.”

His songwriting has been hailed by critics around the world; his song “Christmas in the Trenches” is considered a classic. National Public Radio’s Folk Alley recently named it one of the 100 Essential Folk Songs. Never one to shy away from topical issues, McCutcheon is aware of the politically charged climate America finds itself in these days.

“When I was on tour in Australia this spring, the first question I got was 'what the hell is happening in the United States,’” he said.

His response was humor, taking a long and satirical view of the politicians and foibles of the American electoral process. McCutcheon generally eschews the much chewed over national headlines and concentrates on local matters, an area people overlook.

“So many people can tell you arcane policy points of Bernie Sanders’ campaign yet don't know who is on their town council,” he said. “It's the little things on a local level that make all the difference in our lives.”

According to his website, McCutcheon has collaborated with Tom Paxton, Si Kahn, Holly Near, Steve Seskin, and Tom Chapin. In 2006, he released an album of collaborations entitled “Mightier than the Sword,” in which he co-wrote songs with authors including Barbara Kingsolver, Wendell Berry, Rita Dove, Lee Smith, and Carmen Agra Deedy. He has worked in the Woody Guthrie Archives completing some of Guthrie’s unfinished songs and has composed musical settings of poetry by Pablo Neruda and Jose Martí.

McCutcheon is careful to point out folk music is a living, breathing genre that is ever-changing. On one of his many visits to coal mines to support union workers, he said people listen to everything at their disposal: hip hop, rock, and country.

“These people aren't museum keepers and trying to preserve a tradition,” he said. “Folk music is constantly evolving. It doesn't belong to anybody but it's owned by all of us.”

McCutcheon will perform July 1 at the Boothbay Opera House, 86 Townsend Avenue, Boothbay Harbor. For more information and tickets, please visit boothbayoperahouse.com