Opening with a traditional song The Bad Girl’s Lament, Martin Simpson lived up to his reputation as a most accomplished acoustic guitarist, as he enthralled the audience with his finger-style and slide-guitar playing and distinctive Celtic tones.

Weaving American old time music, blues, traditional folk songs and his own material - including a song he wrote for his father, who was born in 1899, entitled Never Any Good - this was an intense act.

Simpson’s diverse songs included Bob Dylan’s Blind Willie McTell. Simpson mused that the pertinent lyrics of the last verse, "Power and greed and corruptible seed seem to be all that there is," could have been written for today’s political climate, before reprimanding the audience with, “Don’t clap. Cry!”

Storytelling, both in and between songs, was at the heart of this intimate solo gig. Simpson, from Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, talked about the influence of his years living in the US, before playing Delta Dreams - from his 2013 Vagrant Stanzas album - about driving north from New Orleans in a ’55 Bel Air.

The mostly melancholic material moved without deterring the crowd as Simpson, who has been in the music industry for over 45 years, proved his stature, before winding up on the banjo.