A stage full of various guitars and decades of experience in writing, performing and recording guitar music were all the affable acoustic guitarist Gordon Giltrap needed to entertain a near capacity audience.
His pieces carried a number of moods, with some being joyful and others being mournful, but his style was seen throughout the evening – especially during the long form Dodo’s Dream which used an intricate chordal bed and a looping pedal to build into a prog rock epic.
Gordon played his best known piece, Heartsong, towards the beginning of the concert, with its bucolic mood fitting in with the surroundings.
The more menacing Roots showed the influence of such players as Bert Jansch, particularly during Anji which closed the first half.
A new piece, Little Pockets of Joy, was well received, as was the complex Appalachian Dreaming, played on an instrument with some unique design features.
The classical side of his style was revealed in Rainbow Kites, while the concert’s final number, Lucifer’s Cage, was a darkly brooding piece, owing much of its style to The Who’s Pete Townshend, another of Giltrap’s earliest musical influences.