Folk singers of any depth and quality should be the real historians of a nation, capturing the essence of a people through their own distilled musical methods. The work of a man like Tom Russell should be looked up and devoured in libraries by eager young minds like so many volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica, such is his ability to capture the times with such clarity and style. His songs have been recorded by the likes of Johnny Cash and Nanci Griffith in the past. Hailing from Texas and slowly coming to the attention of astute isteners over here, Russell’s 1999 album The Man From God Knows Where remains the most celebrated of his two dozen long playing releases, a back catalogue with endless scope for endless investigation.

Acoustic Music Centre@St Brides, 346 1405, 11 Aug, 7.15pm, £15.