After almost 40 years of recording and playing, Richard Thompson shows no signs of taking his foot off the pedal.

Ostensibly this two-hour gig at The Dome was part of an acoustic tour on the back of last year's album, Front Parlour Ballads, but he also has a five-CD retrospective boxed set coming out imminently.

Plus, there's the soundtrack to Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man. Later this year, the first of three volumes of The Richard Thompson Songbook - compiled by Maartin Allcock of Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull - will be released, so we can all learn to play classics such as1952 Vincent Black Lightning and Hokey Pokey. Of course, to do that might take rather more than just learning the chords because Thompson is truly a rare breed: A prodigiously-skilled musician and an outstanding lyricist.

He blends his dark sense of humour with an artist's passion for life in songs that encompass love, fundamentalism and class.

Rarer still, his judgment is excellent, matching his melodies to the tone of his lyrics and knowing when to play a jaw-droppingly complex solo and when to keep it simple.

He's no slouch when it comes to bantering with the audience, either.

Live, his virtuoso playing is underlined by the sublime double bass of long-term sparring partner Danny Thompson (no relation), notably on the haunting and atmospheric Ghosts In The Wind.

As well as standards such as Fairport's Meet On The Ledge, there were some unexpected selections from the Thompson back-catalogue, which embraces a wide range of genres, including elements of jazz, ragtime and rockabilly, and adds them to the folkrock/ traditional palette.

Probably the high point of an evening of astonishing music-making was Beeswing which neatly brought together Thompson's talent for emotive storytelling, complex melodies and precise playing.

And since the forthcoming volume of Thompson's songbook covers A-H, why not spend the summer mastering Beeswing for yourself?