“It’s hard to deliver a gig to a chest of drawers in your bedroom. You worry about technique, then the recording can sound clinical”: How British acoustic great Clive Carroll tackled John Renbourn classics – and the psychological hurdles of home recording

Clive Carroll.

Fingerstyle acoustic maestro Clive Carroll first met John Renbourn almost by accident. Studying at a London music conservatory, Clive decided to go home to his parents’ house one weekend and noticed that Renbourn was playing at his local folk club. He seized the opportunity, contacted the organiser and asked if he could open the show as support.

“So I turned up armed with some Elizabethan lute galliards, some Joe Pass-influenced numbers and some original pieces as well,” he tells us. “I met John briefly before I started, but what I didn’t realise was that he came up and listened to my entire set.”