“I realise half my set is about the weather,” laughs Jayne Dent aka Me Lost Me, supporting Richard Dawson tonight at The Gate, introducing a song called Heat shortly after an a capella rendition of her favourite May carol. So far, so folk. But Dent’s music is really only folk-adjacent; rather like Gazelle Twin & NYX’s Deep England, she takes the tropes and the form and twists them into strange new shapes, refracted through a digital prism – to frequently thrilling effect.

Not only does the Newcastle-based artist hail from the same city as tonight’s headliner Richard Dawson, but she also shares his belief in the mental health benefits of fresh air and exercise, with her Walking a serendipitous echo of his Jogging. Other songs – typically constructed through the use of electronic gadgetry and loop-pedal self-sampling, but most remarkable for the clarity of her vocals – tackle subject matter both likely (the apocalypse) and unlikely (Italian Renaissance painter Carlo Crivelli’s painting The Annunciation, With Saint Emidius).

Dent’s set is bookended by Festive Day and Eye Witness, which – as its first two singles – bode very well for forthcoming album RPG, out in July through Upset The Rhythm. With Lankum enjoying both critical plaudits and (modest) commercial success, the time might be ripe for Me Lost Me’s own fresh take on folk to make a bigger impact – and if its otherworldly modernism has tedious old traditionalists weeping into their pints of Parson’s Arse, all the better.

There’s only one possible way Richard Dawson can begin. A common critical complaint about latest LP The Ruby Cord is that its 41-minute-long opener The Hermit creates a fatal imbalance. More song suite than song, it should arguably have been released as a separate entity – but in the live environment, performed before Dawson has said a word to the audience, it’s nothing short of magnificent. Building from guitar strums and delicately feathered drums that sound like static, The Hermit takes us on an epic prog-folk odyssey, the mood and scenery constantly changing like the seasons, until eventually, we arrive at our final destination: a gently rousing coda that rises and falls like the swell of the sea in the lyrics. It’s utterly captivating – and not just for the reference to the Northumbrian hamlet of Glororum that stirs this reviewer’s homesickness.

Inevitably, the intensity then slackens as Dawson breathes a sigh of relief and relaxes into the show. Thicker Than Water sounds “dull” when he plays it solo, says the headliner, but “like a pop song” in the current context (he’s not wrong), while Museum and The Fool vie with Horse And Rider as the best of The Ruby Cord’s supporting cast, equally splendid examples of his ungovernable genius.

Part Hairy Biker, part Vic Reeves character, Dawson is frequently very funny – not least when introducing Horse And Rider with an anecdote about playing Red Dead Redemption and naming his digital steed Bridget Riley due to its black and white patterning. Helping him to bring The Ruby Cord to life are drummer Andrew Cheetham, violinist Angharad Davies and his Hen Ogledd and Bulbils bandmate Sally Pilkington on synth. Completing the backing band is Rhodri Davies, warmly welcomed by a partisan crowd. God’s gift to harp string manufacturers is on best behaviour tonight, tickling his instrument in service of the songs rather than attacking it like it’s insulted his mother.

The evening concludes with a marvellous romp through the only older track, Ogre from 2017’s Peasant. Dawson pushes back his chair, sticks out his tongue and makes like Gene Simmons going medieval on our asses, before kneeling in front of the monitors, gurning with face ceilingwards and eyes closed, twiddling his guitar like a bona fide rock god – evidence, perhaps, of time spent in the company of fellow Geordies Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs and Finnish proggers Circle.

I’m no fan of seated gigs, but at least they mean you can very visibly show your appreciation at the end in the form of a standing ovation. Richard Dawson thoroughly deserves his.

Richard Dawson + Me Lost Me, The Gate Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wed 3 May

words BEN WOOLHEAD photos BETHAN MILLER