Jon Boden and John Spiers knocked out an absolute masterpiece with this one, their inimitable style makes trad music sound totally modern, despite the fact that everything here is performed on traditional instruments. The melodeon pounds and waltzes and coaxes you through intricately arranged tunes while the fiddle oozes emotion and excitement. Boden’s voice has very occasionally been criticised, even called reedy, but this is frankly rubbish - he has one of the most original, powerful and note-perfect voices on the scene.

Some of the stuff here has since seen fuller, more grandiose treatment with Bellowhead - Prickle Eye Bush doesn’t hit you quite so hard as the recording on the EP, and the Sloe Gin set, whilst excellent, gets a much funkier treatment on Burlesque, so if you’ve heard that one first you might think the sound here a little less full. But that’s not a like for like comparison, and in any case, the duo manage to make their version just as enthralling as the band did later; the Outlandish Knight is, if anything, even better than the version on Burlesque.

Spiers and Boden do get better and better (what musician wouldn’t want to?) and it has to be said that Songs and Vagabond are stronger albums but the stuff on offer here shows you exactly why they have the reputation of being the very best duo on the folk scene.