Hi Les,

I think if anything you're under-selling him! When he started his first number at Chorlton the other night ("The valiant sailor", aka "Polly on the shore") I actually cried, it was that good. He'd be a memorable performer if he sang unaccompanied, and the harmonium adds a whole other dimension. His cittern sounded pretty good too (particularly when he did a couple of tunes on it).

He didn't bring a guitar the other night, but if you get his CD there are several songs on there with finger-picked arrangements in odd tunings; what with that and the depth of his voice I was reminded of Bert Jansch a few times, and not in a bad way ("I wish I'd put Bert Jansch on instead...") He's also rather annoyingly good on the whistle. Not bad for a young 'un.

He introduced the odd squeezy thing Les mentioned as 'a cross between a harmonium and a flutina'; it's basically a harmonium keyboard with concertina bellows attached. I asked him afterwards what it was called; he told me it's a cross between a harmonium and a flutina. So now you know.

Book him, hear him, get the CD.