With the Doppler rush of occasional passing cars in the background, Lamotte settled in to recount the past — just a momentary break in the perpetual forward movement characteristic of this singer/songwriter come international non-profit director and children’s book author.

“There’s been a great deal of stuff going on,” Lamotte said.

Nearly four years ago, Lamotte met the woman who would later become his wife through a mutual friend at a show in Atlanta. She — once an English teacher in a small fishing village in Japan — and he — a James Taylor-esque musician who once studied psychology and conflict resolution in France — connected immediately with “a few minutes of great conversation,” but that was all. A couple weeks later when he was passing through Atlanta again, the two got a chance to hang out. Two and a half years later in the summer of 2004 they were married.

For their honeymoon Lamotte and Deanna took another plunge, enrolling in a Spanish language immersion school — in Guatemala.

“Both of us are kind of language nuts,” Lamotte said. “And we didn’t have a language in common other than English.”

Lamotte had been to the Third World before, seen the poverty, poor health and lack of education. But in Guatemala, the experience, coupled with his realization of his unique position as a public performer, motivated him to start his own non-profit organization, Proyecto para las Escuelas Guatemaltecas (www.pegpartners.org), for the country’s schools, providing funding for such needs as new computer labs and pre-schools.

The group is in the process of officially securing its 501c3 non-profit status and partnering up with other non-governmental organizations in the area. So far Peg Partners has raised more than $10,000 mostly through donations made at Lamotte’s concerts.

One might say that anything Lamotte does, he does wholeheartedly.

“I have a hard time with the ‘n’ word,” Lamotte said. “I just don’t say no very well.”

Indeed.

Around the same time as Lamotte was getting married and heading to Guatemala, a show in Virginia gave way to a new outlet for his musical work. After the show, Lamotte and an abstract artist friend went out for breakfast. Before he even had the chance to order the friend commanded that Lamotte’s tune “The S.S. Bathtub” — a song from a children’s album Lamotte put out on a lark in ’98 — become the basis for a children’s book, one that she would illustrate.

Just released, the book evokes the whimsy of Lamotte’s songwriting, through handmade strong, colorful brush strokes.

“I’m really thrilled with how it’s come out,” Lamotte said. “I love the organic-ness of the illustrations.”

Lamotte’s personal and professional developments are just now beginning to work their way into his public performances. It’s a process he describes as taking time to step back and look at what have been powerful experiences.

“I guess I feel like I write from the perspectives of my days,” Lamotte said. “I write from my experience and I find that the experiences take a little while to bubble up in song usually.”

His new album, set to be released in February, will be aptly named Change and includes a rare incidence of Lamotte covering another musician’s work. Drawing from the past year and a half’s Latin flavor, Lamotte features Nicaraguan musician Salvador Cardenal’s “Mi Luna” on the album.