Sorry, Jon, I hope I haven't interrupted dinner.

"I stopped working on the 24-hour clock a long time ago," he says. "I eat whenever I'm hungry."

He's only just returned from New York, and he's heading to Nashville the next day. After that, he's home in New Orleans for two weeks (including shows at the legendary Maple Leaf Bar and Chickie Wah Wah) before hitting the road to Korea, Australia, Europe and Cuba.

He'll arrive back in New Orleans in late December.

So, yes, home for four weeks in total for the last four months of 2019.

"I've been doing it for so long it's normal," he says. "Like most musicians, when we're on the road, we want to be home. When we're at home we want to be on the road.

"When I'm at home, I get to flex the other music muscles, doing writing and sketches."

The Australian leg of Cleary's Dyna-Mite tour (the title of his 2018 album) kicks off October 6. He will be bringing his band, The Absolute Monster Gentlemen (AJ Hall, Cornell Williams, Nigel Hall), and all the blues grooves that come with them.

And they love it in Australia - Williams is married to Australian woman, in fact.

Fans can expect a few cuts from Dyna-Mite, but that's not all.

"I like to mix it up," Cleary says. "I try to make space in the course of an evening to play some New Orleans stuff. It's important it still gets played. You pay respect to older musicians. The other part is moving things forward. You do that with new songs."

Not just new songs, but variations on tunes already in your catalogue. When you play in the swampland that fuses jazz, blues, funk and a bit of rock like Cleary does, there are no limits.

"When you play New Orleans music, you operate in a general framework," he says. "There is room in that to improvise. Some aspects rehearsed. The arrangements are in a constant state of evolution. One guy might play something, it might become part of arrangement. Or we try this ending at sound check. If it doesn't work . . . It's a Darwinian process. Over the course of a tour, certain things start to develop."

Cleary is damned serious about the New Orleans thing. He moved there 37 years ago from England because he grew up loving the blues. He was no overnight success; he's worked at it. Now, he's part of what it means, as well a respected world-class musician.

"The thing with New Orleans, the musicians were artists, but also artisans," he says. "They were proud of the efficiency of the instrument. They got respect and kudos from musicians if you played well. The music was a priority. We live in an age of popular music - fashion and trend. A lot of stuff gets added on. We just do the music, that's what we do."

And for him, chase new horizons, too. He's a long-time fan of Cuban music, and excited to be touring there this year.