Ramblin' Ron Boone likes to tell a good story.

"The best gig I played was the Tundra Lodge in Tok, Alaska," he says. "It was an impromptu thing, and I ended up with a beer and 8 bucks."

In the best American folk tradition, the singer-songwriter from South Strabane also likes to tell stories in his songs. In fact, he's recorded a CD that's called, appropriately enough, "Song Stories."

On the disc, Ramblin' Ron addresses sociopolitical issues in compositions like "Needle for My Child," "Placebo Poppin' Junkie" and "Toast to Life and Love," the latter dedicated to the memory of Matthew Shepard, who "was tied to a wooden fence where he was beaten and left to die, because he was gay." Another remembrance is "Mariah's Garden," which he composed for the dedication of a memorial flower garden for a girl who was killed in an auto accident on the eve of her high school graduation.

He lightens up with "Old Man's Rap," which is pretty much what the title sounds like, and it's quite a hoot to boot.

Other songs draw inspiration from his travels, such as one titled after the state where he played the Tundra Lounge. He sent a recording of "Alaska" to the Alaska Wilderness League in Washington D.C., and that organization invited him to play it at a conference in the nation's capital. They even chauffered him down there.

Since the completion of "Song Stories" last year, he's recorded a new song "Orphan Train," about child laborers sent out West in the 19th century.

Ramblin' Ron is accompanied on his recordings by the local folk-rock group The Primatives (Jesse and Joy Hanson, with Jack Houston on bass). They add harmonies to his low-key, world-weary vocals that suit his subject matter very well.

Along with writing songs, Ron also has written "Alaska Sojourn," detailing his 2002 drive to "my last frontier." He writes that he traveled 11,818 miles; made 41 gasoline stops; visited 15 states, three Canadian provinces, seven national parks and eight provincial parks; took 189 photos and 10 rolls of slide film; and filled four videocassettes.

And he earned a beer and 8 bucks somewhere along the way.

PHOTO: Ramblin' Ron performs at the Main Street Farmers Market in Downtown Washington. If you get a chance, stop by the market, which takes place every Thursday from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. through October, right across the street from this newspaper's office! (Thanks to our staff photographer Greg Tarr for taking Ron's picture.)