THE billing says Teddy Thompson & David Ford, and Tuesday’s concert in York is an interesting prospect as much for the two English singer-songwriters as the York audience.

“I’ve actually never met David,” says Teddy, when we contacted him at his New York address.

“A booking agent suggested we should do some shows together and said, ‘Do you know this guy?’, and I said ‘No’, but since then I’ve heard his music.”

Teddy was suitably impressed, and he is not alone. The Sunday Times Culture magazine once gave him a front cover, pronouncing Ford to be “the best English songwriter you’ve never heard”.

“Since the tour was arranged we’ve talked about doing some songs together, and David might actually sit in with me and play with the band,” says Teddy.

At the time of the interview, the exact arrangement was yet to be decided: it would take rehearsals in London to firm up the plans.

For certain, however, Ford will fill the opening spot, playing songs from last year’s self-released album, Let The Hard Rimes Roll.

Thompson, meanwhile, will be promoting his fifth album, Bella, one day after its release on Verve Forecast/Universal.

When we last spoke to Teddy in January 2009, he professed his fourth opus, A Piece Of What You Need, to be “as close as I’ve gotten to making the record I’ve always wanted to make”.

So, Teddy, what does that make Bella? “Actually this is the record I’ve always wanted to make,” he says.

“As soon as I’ve finished a record, I think I could have done it better or I want to change it, but that’s a healthy attitude, to want to improve, but I think we did a really good job this time. I’m continuing to get better, I believe.”

By “we” he is referring to Teddy and producer David Kahne, who has overseen an album recorded in Thompson’s adopted home city of New York with his touring band of drummer Ethan Eubanks, bass player Jeff Hill and guitarist Daniel Mintseris.

Bella allies lean rock’n’roll with lush string arrangements, the songs being developed and honed in a Manhattan office that Teddy would visit each day as the recording deadline loomed.

“David and I didn’t know each other,” he says.

“I started from scratch for this record after working with Marius De Vries last time. I thought of the records I liked and talked to other musicians, and it was mostly the Regina Spektor albums David worked on that I primarily liked about him – and then I went back to what he’d worked on earlier, such as with Paul McCartney, which is no bad thing.

“David is a very diverse pop musician; he knows all about the hook and the catchy moment but in a good, musical way. That’s definitely the overwhelming thing he wanted to zero in on: the most important moment of the song, and he would then focus on that.”

Were you always in agreement?

“We disagreed here and there, sometimes early on, when he would hear the way I sang something, the way my voice broke, and he’d say, ‘That would prick up people’s ears’, and I’d say, ‘I don’t know if I want to sing it that way’, as I didn’t want to feel boxed in… but he was mostly right,” says Teddy.

On an album where Thompson plays a “refreshingly candid Romeo”, you may be wondering who Bella is.

“She’s my ex-girlfriend. We had an on-off relationship and a lot of those songs were written about her, either when we were together or when we were breaking up,” he says. “David and I were also talking about making a beautiful record, and of course ‘bella’ is Italian for ‘beautiful’.”

Contrary to many break-up records, making Bella was not a cathartic experience for Teddy.

“No, not really. I’m not aware of it being that, but then I’ve never had those feelings, and if anything, it makes it feel worse if you write about broken love and then have to sing about it every night,” he says. “It’s rubbing salt in the wounds.”

If not cathartic, then what is Bella instead?

“I think it might be self-flagellatory, beating myself up about it, or maybe I don’t have a choice, as it’s what’s been going on in my life, so that’s what I sing about.”

We then take a punt, daring to suggest that Teddy’s singing on Bella is at times reminiscent of one Roy Orbison. “Yes, I think that’s fair enough,” he concedes. Phew!

“I think I may have referenced it for at least one of the songs, when we talked about the string arrangements with David, and as I can’t express myself in other ways than leaving the producer to decode what I’m trying to say… but it gave me a shiver to think about being mentioned in the same sentence as Roy,” he says.

“To give David a lot of credit, that’s why you have a producer, to bring something new to the table and he did that.”

• As Teddy is folk grandee Richard Thompson’s son, we took the opportunity to ask what he thought of his father receiving an OBE in the 2011 New Year Honours list.

“It’s great…but I haven’t congratulated him yet. Maybe I should ring him,” said Teddy.

• Teddy Thompson & David Ford play Fibbers, York, on Tuesday, 7.30pm, with Ford also playing the support spot. Tickets: £15