Sometimes, when I'm feeling useless, I think back and take solace in the fact that I'm one of the greatest songwriters of all time. This occurs to me because the similarly splendid composer Al Stewart performs a sold-out show Sunday with his band The Empty Pockets in Old Saybrook's Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center.

Stewart is best known for tunes like "Year of the Cat," "Roads to Moscow," "On the Border," "Time Passages" and so on. A marvelous body of work across numerous albums! 

Melodically, Stewart's really good, but I think I'm just a little more sophisticated when it comes to lyrics. A few examples:

Stewart lyric: "In a morning from a Bogart movie in a country where they turn back time / She goes strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre contemplating a crime"

Rick lyric: "Hey mama, let's boogie a lot!"

Stewart lyric: "And the evening sings in a voice of amber, the dawn is surely coming /

The morning roads lead to Stalingrad, and the sky is softly humming"

Rick lyric: "Whoa! Look atcha, funky girl!"

Stewart lyric: "Rainstorm, brainstorm, faces in the maelstrom / Huddle by the puddles in the shadows where the drains run"

Rick lyric: "Let's rock, let's roll / Let's rhythm 'n' blues"

If you've got tickets, tell Al I said hi. It'll give his some peer anxiety, but in a good way.

Al Stewart, 7 p.m. Sunday, Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook; sold out; www.thekate.org.