WHILE geneticists debate whether you can inherit musical talent from your parents, there is no doubt that growing up with Carly Simon and James Taylor (above right) as your mum and dad must confer at least an inkling of artistry.

And when Ben Taylor arrives in Glasgow on Sunday, audiences will be able to decide for themselves.

Having toured Europe with Tracy Chapman, he is set to make his Scottish debut in support of latest album, Another Run Around The Sun.

With 11 songs dealing with love and loss, he deliberately set out to make a record that would stand on its own, with simple guitar accompaniment if necessary.

"This album (Run Around The Sun) is a natural progression of who I am and what I've been through," he explains. "I wanted to make a record that I could tour by myself if I had to - something I could live with night after night."

It is his third album, and marks a transition from his 1997 debut, Green Dragon, Name A Fox, in which he railed against his family legacy.

He admits: "I was trying to make something totally different from anything a Taylor had recorded before. Ultimately, that meant I was not putting my best foot forward, and we lost the focus we should have kept on the songs themselves. Certainly, I don't blame anyone but myself for that."

The follow-up, Famous Among The Barns, won the attention of Radio 2, in particular track Day After Day.

But these days, Taylor, 29, who cites Paul McCartney, Donovan and Cat Stevens as influences, is less rebellious and more relaxed with the baggage, the weight of expectation that comes with being the progeny of famous and talented parents.

"There wasn't a whole lot of me in some of my earlier recordings," he says. "But this one is entirely me. It's the most self-accepting thing I've ever done."

And he adds: "My parents have both influenced me equally in very different ways. I learned the guitar by teaching myself how to play my Dad's sound. He's the one who really, truly taught me about music, but when I started writing songs my Mom helped me in a different way.

"I toured a lot with my father, watching him onstage every night, or wondering where he had gone when he locked himself in a tiny room for months upon months until he came out with works of genius. He never played his new music for us until he felt it was impeccable.

"My mom was at the opposite end of the spectrum: she was always playing her rough mixes because she wanted our input. No matter what time of the night it was, she'd wake everybody in the house to hear whatever song it was that she couldn't get out of her head." Ben Taylor, Sunday, ABC2, doors 7pm, tickets £9.