There’s this curious phenomenon in Americana music, the genre where country, folk, storytelling and rock ‘n’ roll blend together.

It goes like this: Someone writes great songs, and records them and performs them, but somehow never catches on with a mass audience.

Other artists record the same songs, often with very similar arrangements, and sell millions of records.

Jim Lauderdale knows the steely gaze of this musical black hole. With more than 40 professional years under his belt, and dozens of tunes turned into hits by the likes of country stars George Strait, Blake Shelton, Lucinda Williams, Old Crow Medicine Show, Gary Allan, the Dixie Chicks, Mark Chestnutt, Patty Loveless, Vince Gill and even Elvis Costello, the North Carolina native has never had a hit under his own name. He’s about to release his 40th album.

Lauderdale, 69, is playing two shows Friday at the Jack Kerouac House in St. Petersburg. Each performance in the small residential home at 5169 10th Avenue N. seats 60.

“Success for me is when I finish a song,” Lauderdale tells the Catalyst. “If I’m happy with it. And when I go into the studio with it, and it turns out good, the next step is if others enjoy it. Just the act of creating music, and then playing it for an audience – no matter what the size is, and connecting with people.”

In mid-August, he’ll fly to Norway to join Emmylou Harris’ “European Farewell Tour.” She asked Lauderdale to be her opening act, playing solo, through Sept. 6.

Then it’s back to Nashville and his band, the Game Changers. They’ve got tour dates booked.

“I’ve had just as good of a time playing for a handful of people, or after a gig or a festival at a late night jam, than the pressure, sometimes, of playing in a real big place,” he explains. “Which has its thrill to it as well.

“There’s a lot of ups and downs in this process, in the life of a writer and singer-songwriter on the road. But you gotta take the bad with the good.”

Lauderdale thinks back to his 20s, when he was writing and playing hard, scrapping for that elusive record deal, and he said to a friend, “I just need a break. I just want to make it.”

“You HAVE made it,” she told him. “You can write songs, and play them for your family and friends.” Lauderdale scoffed. “You don’t understand,” he whined.

Many years and numerous failed record deals later, he says, “it kind of sank in, and now I tell aspiring writers that that is success, when you can create something, and you might only play it at a jam session, or for some friends or whatever … success is relative.”

He has performed duets with George Jones, Ralph Stanley, Trish Yearwood, Dar Williams and his longtime friend and musical fellow traveler, Buddy Miller. He wrote with the Grateful Dead’s Robert Hunter, and made an album with jam band favorites Donna the Buffalo.

Said George Strait: “Jim Lauderdale is a consummate entertainer, a sharp dressed man as well, a terrific songwriter and a great singer.”

One thing he’s steadfastly refused to do is stick to a formula, even if it results in positive attention. Jim Lauderdale is an artist faithful to the muse.

“My records kinda go where the mood strikes me, or where I get the inspiration – ‘I want to do a bluegrass record, and I want to do a traditional-sounding country record, and a kinda country, a little more rockin’ record’ – all that kind of stuff.”

And even though he’s a little nervous that Emmylou Harris’ European audiences will grow impatient waiting for her to appear, he has faith in himself, and the courage of his convictions.

“I just want the songs to be as good as possible, and my vocal to be as good as possible on the record,” Lauderdale says.

“And playing solo is a good way to know and convey what the songs are, outside of the record, if they stand up and work in a solo situation. And I really like playing solo a lot.”

Friday’s performances are at 6 and 9 p.m. Find tickets at this link, and this link.