Jonathan Edwards likes to think of himself as a “live-music guy.”

“That’s where my strength is, engaging with audiences,” says Edwards, the veteran country-fock-rock artist who is still probably best known for his 1971 hit “Sunshine.”

“That’s where I’m most excited, in front of a live crowd.”

Which is why Edwards wasn’t too concerned about the fact that he went 14 years without putting out a studio album, until he released “My Love Will Keep” last year. (He did release live albums in 2007 and 2010.)

“I’m always looking for songs, and I love writing songs,” says Edwards, whose albums, over the years, have generally been a 50/ 50 mix of his original songs and his interpretations of songs written by other artists that “I’ve made my own, by finding a new way to relate to the song.”

“So, over the last decade, I’ve written songs that I’ve been playing in my live shows, and some of them made it onto the album,” he says, referring to “My Love Will Keep.”

“Plus, the business of making recordings is a confusing realm right now. Sometimes, I feel like, ‘Who buys albums anymore?’ Most people just seem to want to download singles from iTunes. So, it’s a strange world we’re in right now, in terms of recorded music—and a challenging enterprise,” says Edwards, who comes to The Ark for a solo-acoustic performance on Thursday.

But Edwards has continued to maintain his audience despite going almost a decade-and-a-half without a new studio disc. Part of that, of course, is due to his veteran status, but also due to the strength of his body of work, including songs like “Honky Tonk Stardust Cowboy,” “Sometimes,” “One Day Closer,” “Don’t Cry Blue,” “Emma,” “Everybody Knows Her,” “Athens County” and “Shanty,” which remain fan favorites.

Indeed, he won many fans with those sturdy, melodic songs—and with his ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s albums in general—and those fans have remained loyal, continuing to turn out for his live shows.

In fact, the bucolic “Surrounded,” the leadoff track of “Love Will Keep,” is a song that dates back to the earliest phase of his career.

“I actually wrote that song about 30 years ago,” says Edwards by phone from his home in Portland, Maine. “I just never found the right treatment for the song, or the right groove, or the right atmosphere. It’s a pretty cool song, I think, that was inspired by my working out in the woods with a horse I’d raised, and pulling logs out of the woods in Nova Scotia, where I was living at the time. But I still think the mood of the song is just as relevant today.”

Another nature-centric song is the similarly comfy “Johnny Blue Horizon,” which is a tribute to John Denver.

“I was out in Aspen a little while back, and hooked up with Jimmy Ibbotson (of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), who lives out there, and who I’ve known forever. While I was there, at one point we talked about how cool it would be to do a tribute album to John Denver someday…..And then when I came home, I wrote this song for John, and for his memory, and what he was able to accomplish. He was a great inspiration to us, as singer-songwriters, being successful by just getting out on stage with an acoustic guitar and singing his songs.”

“Lightkeeper” is also a paean to nature—it’s a celebration of the planet’s oceans and was written for the 2009 film “The Lightkeepers,” starring Richard Dreyfuss.

Regarding his affinity for nature, and being drawn to it as a subject matter or his songs, Edwards says: “If I have a religion, it would be nature. I get my answers, and my counsel, from trees and rivers and animals.” So, Edwards makes sure he has easy access to natural surroundings. “I live in an area where I can get on my bike, and in 20 minutes, be on an amazing, pristine beach,” he says.

(About 10 years ago, Edwards also hosted the 13-week PBS documentary series, “Cruising America’s Waterways,” traveling by boat from Canada to Florida along the various interconnecting rivers along the Eastern seaboard.)

Over the years, Edwards’ music has navigated the folk, rock, country and bluegrass genres (he joined the Seldom Scene in 1993, and recorded the album “Blue Ridge” with them). And “My Love Will Keep” is similarly varied: “Crazy Texas Woman” is a foursquare country-rocker, and “How Long” is a spritely bluegrass number.

Duke Levine, the ace New England guitarist who has played on a couple of Edwards’ previous discs, returns, bolstering few tracks with his signature guitar drone / atmospherics / nimble roots-rock fretwork.

“I’ll never do another record without him,” says Edwards with a laugh. “He brings an amazing depth and gravitas to the music. When he sits down and asks me what I want, I tell him ‘I’m not saying a word,’ because whatever idea I came up with couldn’t match the sounds he can conjure with that guitar.”

Bluegrass songbird Claire Lynch also lends her considerable talents to a few tracks, dressing them up with her crystal-clear harmony vocals.

The most surprising track on the disc is probably Edwards’ pensive, haunting re-interpretation of the Beatles’ “She Loves You.” “I like the idea, in that song, of one friend, quietly talking to another, and telling him how much this woman loves him,” says Edwards. “Like, ‘Hey, man, wake up and smell the coffee, she really loves you.’”

When he began recording “Love Will Keep,” Edwards says that, “what I mostly had in the back of my mind, since I hadn’t released a new album in 14 years, was that I wanted to make it gentle. I wanted to make it friendly and welcoming, with its arms wide open, saying, ‘Come on in.’ I didn’t want it to be aggressive, and be the kind of record where someone would say, ‘Hey, turn that down!’

“I think I accomplished that. So, having done that, my next album will likely be more rock ‘n’ roll—it will probably have more of an edge to it.”