By now used to larger venues, multiple BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winner Chris Wood seemed to enjoy the intimate setting of The Greys pub, cheerfully labelling himself a “hideous, grumpy old git” and teasing younger members of the crowd about their inability to understand his “middle-aged love songs”.

Wood’s towering songwriting ability was evident throughout, perhaps best illustrated by his deft switch from a pencil sketch of a new song – an affecting fragment about being suddenly struck by a memory – to the complex oil painting that is his ballad Hollow Point.

The devastatingly matter-of-fact retelling of the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005 was made all the more compelling by the madness of the venue’s apparently out-of-control lights and the closeness of the summer night.

Other highlights included Spitfires, inspired by BNP European electioneering and augmented by Wood’s Merlin engine-like hum; a mesmerising, jazzy reworking of Jerusalem; a raft of traditional songs; and a breezy take on Ronnie Lane’s The Poacher.

It’s a quirk of the English folk scene – and The Greys’ bold booking policy – that a musician of Wood’s stature can be found playing a small pub on a random Monday night. News that he wanted to return – “in a year and a day” – was greeted with understandable enthusiasm.