Sam Grassie's Angi named a standout folk gig of 2023 by Tradfolk's Jon Wilks

Few gigs make it into a year-end round-up, but Jon Wilks of Tradfolk picked out one performance from 2023 for particular praise: Sam Grassie playing "Angi" at a Bert Jansch tribute evening. The night was hosted by Broadside Hacks Folk Club at the Moth Club in London, and Wilks's piece, published on 28 December 2023, treats the moment as one of the stand-out folk performances of the year. Looking back at it now offers a useful snapshot of how Grassie was being heard in live settings.

What Wilks responded to first was the poise of Grassie's playing. Rather than reaching for effect, the guitar work is described as composed and controlled, letting the tune carry its own weight. The performance sat within a programme devoted to Jansch, so the music itself set the standard, and Wilks's point is that Grassie met it without strain.

The critic was also struck by the balance between homage and individuality. In his account, Grassie's interpretation feels distinctly his own while remaining true to the spirit of Jansch and of Davey Graham, the other reference point in Wilks's reading. It is the kind of playing that honours its sources without simply reproducing them.

The room's response is central to the write-up. Wilks describes an audience that fell silent as the performance unfolded, before applause broke out. That shift from hush to ovation is presented as evidence that the playing had held the room, not merely impressed it, and it gives the short gig vignette much of its force.

It is worth being clear about the format. The piece is a brief passage inside a year-end round-up rather than a full review, and no rating was attached to it. The verdict comes through description and emphasis rather than a score, which makes the praise read as a judgement on one night rather than on a whole body of work.

Read alongside that, the piece says something about how Grassie's live work was received in 2023: as a player whose restraint and sense of tradition could sit comfortably alongside the material of Jansch and Graham, and whose interpretations were taken seriously on their own terms. For an act whose reputation rests on performance, that is a telling thing for a critic to single out at the end of the year.