Texas singer/songwriter Butch Hancock returns to McGonigel's Mucky Duck for his first solo appearance in Houston in more than four years tonight.

While the legendary artist has been away from our town for a while, he’s hardly been resting on his laurels. Since he last visited the Mucky Duck, he’s toured nationally and internationally, launched his first New York art exhibition and built a futuristic home in the historic ghost town of Terlingua. And that’s just for starters.

The prolific songwriter, whose work has been covered by Emmylou Harris, Jerry Jeff Walker, the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Texas Tornados, has been touring for the past year and a half with his longtime friends and collaborators Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, who, with Hancock, are together known as The Flatlanders.

The Flatlanders’ latest release, Hills and Valleys, garnered widespread praise from critics as well as two nominations in last year’s Americana Music Awards, including one for Song of the Year. Rolling Stone lauded their nominated song, a reverse-migration Dust Bowl ballad called “Homeland Refugee”, as one of the “best recession tunes” and part of the “soundtrack for hard times.”

Since the Hills and Valleys release last spring, Hancock, Gilmore and Ely have performed in more than 60 cities, including the first-ever Flatlanders tour of Australia.

Then, there’s Hancock’s work as a visual artist. Hancock received critical acclaim for his first exhibition in New York, featuring his futuristic, elaborate ballpoint pen drawings and photographs.

Award-winning artist and songwriter Terry Allen, a close friend of Hancock’s, curated the New York show at the CUE Art Foundation. Of Hancock’s exhibition, Allen says, “He’s made his life completely about the making of amazing things. Other than music, only a small group of friends and family really know about this other work ... photographs, film, video, outlandish architectural propositions, elaborate ballpoint drawings, handmade journals filled with writings, sketches and scrawls, etc ... and always, the songs.”

Meanwhile, back in the desert flats of Terlingua near Big Bend National Park, Hancock has been designing and almost single-handedly building his own wild, expansive, solar-powered residence. In his spare time, he moonlights as a white-water rafting guide, leading river tours that feature nightly concerts. He moved to Terlingua in the late 1990s with his family to live, and as Hancock says, “to find better parking places.”

This month, Hancock has been celebrating another beloved folk icon. Last week, he held his annual Woody Guthrie Birthday Tribute at the legendary Cactus Café on the University of Texas campus in Austin, then headed out with his family for Guthrie’s hometown, Okemah, Oklahoma, to perform at the 13th-annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival.

Speaking of the Cactus Cafe, one of the highlights of Hancock’s multi-faceted career is the No Two Alike series, a collection of 14 tapes capturing more than 140 of his songs over a six-night stand in 1990 at the Cactus, where he's joined by a multitude of guests and never repeats a tune.

Recently, the University of Texas announced controversial plans to close the Cactus Café, then, in response to public outcry, said the Cactus would remain open in joint management with the university’s public radio station KUT and the Student Union. Many fans of the venue are concerned that it’s still unclear how the “new” Cactus will evolve under this new KUT management structure.

Hancock, who has been a fixture at the club for many years, will celebrate the venue’s 30-year history and close out “the Original Cactus Cafe” next month by reprising his No Two Alike performances and playing five nights, August 10-14 .... without repeating a single song.

Hancock’s appearance at the Mucky Duck on Thursday will cover only one night, not five, but it promises to be filled with plenty of songs and stories. After all, after a four-year absence, we’ve got some catching up to do.

Butch Hancock appears at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 713-528-5999.