One of life’s enduring mysteries, to me anyway, is why a fiddle always sounds so much better than a violin.

It might be just my ears, of course, but the integral joie de vivre present in the fiddler’s arm always smashes the clinical preciseness of massed ranks of orchestra violinists.

Just sayin’.

And here was an archetypal exponent of the art in larger than life multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer, half (or even one third) of the mighty folk roots combo Show of Hands, nearing the end of a solo tour at Bournemouth Folk Club.

With his, ahem, generous proportions and flowing greyish locks, he looks like he needs just a Viking helmet to complete the look of a warrior who hadn’t turned up for training for a few years.

He didn’t disappoint the near sell-out crowd – comfortably ensconced in seats from the old Imax cinema as the Shelley restoration continues apace – with two excellent sets of diversity and dexterity.

Interspersed with tales of his early years in Devon, life on the road, odd hotels and a brief guitar lesson, good-natured Phil magnanimously name-checked many of the musicians he has admired and followed.

Thus we had Davey Graham, Blind Willie Johnson, Randy Newman and Hoyt Axton rubbing shoulders with the perhaps less stellar names, to many, of Johnny Coppin, Dave Wood, John Hartford and Reg Meuross.

With six instruments available to him (the mandolin wasn’t touched), Phil’s all-round musical genius was plain to see and even at 63 there’s no sign of stopping, with him having just acquired a Martin D-28 guitar which retails for the same amount as a decent car.

The set ranged across styles and genres, including the epic Blind Fiddler, Paper Round, I Cannot Keep From Crying Sometimes, Holy Brook, April’s Morning, Bus Stop, Birmingham Hotel, Devil’s Right Hand and even a version of Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear.

It’s good to see Phil out of the shadow of the more forceful stage presence of SoH partner Steve Knightley and even though Brexit meant we couldn’t have an encore (too French), he did come back for a couple more tunes.