A belated St David’s Day celebration was in order when Welsh singer-songwriters appeared at the Hub as part of their Friday Night Folk season.
Starting the evening was The Courteous Thief, with an acoustic guitar painted with a dragon and a sound world that was shaped equally by indie and folk.
Using several live looping pedals for both his vocals and acoustic guitar and a steady rhythm coming from his foot, his songs were complicated, with sudden changes in timbre, sensitivity and time signature.
His music has been played on the radio, and he has gained a serious reputation as a support act for many household names, as his stage and songcraft showed.
The songs ranged from The Mountains of Our Home, with its narrative and musical drive, to the slower and more stately Roses.
Rest My Bones was a stomping bluesy piece with a certain debt to both KT Tunstall and Seasick Steve, while the tuneful Creatures of the Night was a showcase for his guitar playing, live arranging skills and vocals.
Finishing the evening was Eve Goodman. She is an up and coming name on the Welsh music scene, with an ethereal voice, making use of simple, but musically effective ideas on guitar.
She sang in both English and Welsh, with songs that were about the natural world and humanity’s space within it.
The Welsh language Angor was a study in melodicism, while Wave upon Wave and The Sea were ballads about water and wild swimming.
A slowed-down version of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams became a communal singalong and just a small part in a concert where the music, performers and surrounding led to a night of spellbinding music-making and rewarding listening.
