LOS ANGELES (Oct. 7) - His new album may have been a commercial disappointment but Steve Winwood is undaunted as he prepares to launch his first U.S. tour in six years. The British pop music veteran, who has spent most of his 49 years in the public gaze, will roll out his classic hits as well as a selection of tunes from current release ''Junction Seven.'' The album, his first since 1990's ''Refugees of the Heart,'' spent just four weeks on the Billboard album charts after debuting at 131 in June. Winwood is philosophical about its performance, surmising that his Virgin Records label has its hands full with other acts. ''They've obviously got the Spice Girls and lots of other things that take more of their attention. I think it's kind of inevitable,'' he told Reuters in an interview. ''I like my music to reach as many people as possible but over 35 years or whatever it's impossible to keep on the crest of the wave. Over a period of time you have to learn to surf.'' Winwood has plenty of well-known songs to tide him over. He debuted as a precocious 16-year-old vocalist with the Spencer Davis Group, whose hits included ''Gimme Some Lovin''' and ''I'm a Man.'' He left in 1967 to form Traffic, had a brief excursion with the short-lived ''supergroup'' Blind Faith and launched his solo career in 1977. His successful albums include ''Arc of a Diver'' (1980) and the Grammy Award-winning ''Back in the High Life'' (1986). To underscore the unpredictability of the music business, Winwood notes that jazz and adult contemporary radio stations are playing a song from ''Junction Seven'' that was not released as a single. The tune is ''Plenty Lovin','' a duet he recorded with English rhythm and blues songstress Des'ree. ''I wouldn't have really guessed that,'' he said. ''They just picked it of their own accord. It's always interesting to see how the marketplace accepts something or rejects it.'' Winwood's tour began last month in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and will keep him on the road for about two months. Before releasing ''Junction Seven,'' he re-formed Traffic with Jim Capaldi in 1994, releasing an album and touring. In its heyday, the group was a progressive rock staple with such songs as ''Paper Sun'' and ''John Barleycorn.'' Winwood believes the group's psychedelic and jazz-based sounds are evident in a new generation of artists ranging from Paul Weller to the Dave Matthews Band. He expects Traffic aficionados to account for both ends of the age spectrum at his solo dates, while the middle ground will consist of fans of his solo hits such as ''While You See A Chance,'' ''Valerie'' and ''Roll With It.'' ''Perhaps Traffic has come around again for much younger people. They seem to like something about that freedom of the early 70s and 60s,'' he said. These days, Winwood divides his time between homes in Nashville and Gloucestershire and is married with four children. He says family life has strengthened his Christian beliefs ''and given me a sense of purpose, a sense of direction.'' Although he makes a point of thanking God on his new album, he resisted the temptation to follow Bob Dylan down his ill-fated gospel trek of the late 1970s. Winwood attributes part of his enduring relevance to the fact that his music, steeped in soul and R&B, generally transcended trends. ''I was not so much into the social change or the fashion side of rock 'n' roll. I was always primarily concerned with the music side of it,'' he said. Sure enough, expect him to raise the rafters with ''Gimme Some Lovin','' the infectious 1965 classic rock staple that crops up in movie soundtracks on a regular basis and still seems like it was written yesterday. Winwood shies away from his past references to the song being the ''bane of my existence,'' saying ''It is something that I'm required to play. But because of that, with each band and each year, I try and do a slightly different, updated version, and it's always fun to play. It's a great song to sing. It's not a simple song and it takes work to get it to sound right.'' -- Dean Goodman (Reuter)