love of music, about hearing the blues in Belfast, and about his dream of becoming … a vet.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lead Belly in the mid-1930s, complete with 12-string guitar. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

When and where did you first hear Lead Belly?

In my father’s record collection. He had Lead Belly records when I was very young. It was maybe 1954 or 1955. He had been in the States before that, and he turned me on to the music with his record collection. And he used to take me to this record shop every Saturday when I was a kid. Atlantic Records, on the High Street in Belfast. Solly Lipsitz was the guy who ran it (1). His sister lived in New York and he was importing records from there.was brought up in, there were people who had stuff – mainly country music. There was a guy down my street, Jim Tosh, was like a Hank Williams jukebox. We used to play all the Hank Williams songs and had jam sessions on a Sunday. He was a big Jimmie Rodgers fan. I’ve still got an LP – I forgot to give it him back, actually. It’s been all around the world.

What about the Celtic folk influences?

That goes back to Rory McEwen on TV, doing Scottish folk songs, and also Lead Belly. And Steve Benbow. And Robin Hall and Jimmie MacGregor as well. They were on the same programme, six o’clock every night, weeknights. In black and white. And then there was the local group, the McPeake Family