There's no need for the person on the end of the line to introduce himself to begin our conversation.

After all, it's hard to mistake a Proclaimer.

But introduce himself Craig Reid does in that same extra chunky style Scottish burr he and his twin brother Charlie are famous for singing in.

Famous and beloved.

In fact, so beloved are the bespectacled brothers, especially in their homeland, that The Proclaimers' 1987 debut This Is the Story was named the second best Scottish album of all time (second only to Primal Scream's Screamadelica), and they were the only act to have two in the Top 25.

"It's great," Reid says of the honour. "It's great, especially in your home country when you're from such a small place as Scotland, if you do get recognition."

That recognition has been well earned with catchy folk pop singles such as Sunshine on Leith, I'm On My Way and I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) and a stellar live show, which Calgarians will once again get to witness tomorrow night at Cowboys.

It's continued with their latest release Born Innocent, which has, especially in the UK, earned the brothers the best reviews of their career thanks to stellar earthy production by Edwyn Collins. Reid says he thinks the seeds for the new album's success were actually sown before its release and were the result of a couple of different factors, including a seven-year hiatus they took in the '90s to deal with family issues including the death of their father.

"I think the fact that we were away for seven years, certainly in Scotland, it really helped us because we weren't in people's faces," he says, noting that layoff would have been "suicide" for most other acts.

"And then when we came back in 2001 (with the CD Persevere) we had a huge younger following that had gotten into the records in the previous years and an older following that was still there ...

"I think (with Born Innocent) we made a great record, and I think the production (by Collins) and the playing on the record is really, really good.

"And maybe because of the re-establishment and because of the gap in the previous years, people were willing to listen to what we were doing."

Reid's observation that The Proclaimers weren't in people's faces is only partially true -- they were, just in a more subtle fashion.

The duo's songs and thus the band itself were kept in the music world's consciousness as a result of placement in a number of popular films, including Dumb & Dumber, Bottle Rocket and Shrek.

"It has helped us," Reid says, noting that it was less by a brilliant plan than by good fortune.

"It wasn't a smart move on our behalf -- it was fortunate that we were offered in the seven years that we were away two or three times some major stuff that we could put our music into and we did.

"If you're U2, you don't need that because you get played everywhere and you get massive radio play.

"If you don't get massive radio play doing stuff like that is good, and doing the gigs is absolutely essential."