Famed for his classic song, 'Streets of London', the man for all seasons Ralph McTell brought overtures of delight when he returned to the, admittedly, more rural streets of Hereford.

That same appeal which struck a bitter-sweet chord across the nation in the early 1970s is alive and well, it can be reported, and playing nightly to avid audiences everywhere, including Hereford's Courtyard. Though the singer-songwriter has clocked up more than 40 years in the business, he can still make them laugh, make them cry, even draw them into the deeper realms of human joy and angst, and still hang his intensive one-and-three-quarter-hour show on the support of nothing more than one man and his guitar.

His appearance on stage here was only his third visit to the city in all those years on the road, and Hereford welcomed him in with gusto. Playing to a packed auditorium, the mellow Mr McTell breezed effortlessly through a moving repertoire that systematically cheered, saddened, uplifted and, of course, informed his audience. For above all, the endearingly handsome and likeable singer is a story-teller par excellence, who also has a palpable empathy for his fellow man.

Yes, he sang his emotive account of the lonely people struggling to survive in London, which pitched him into the limelight three decades ago, but he also brought into focus the other hapless victims of an unforgiving world. His dramatic encore was an emotive song inspired by the case of Derek Bentley, the 19-year-old hanged for killing PC Sidney Miles during a bungled break-in at a Croydon warehouse in 1953, who was only pardoned 45 long years after his execution. The singer read reports of the case in his local newspapers as an eight-year-old boy living in Croydon, and the echoes of his angrily rasped out chords still hung in the air after he left the Courtyard stage.

Not suprisingly for a man who cares deeply about humanity, and who has a well-practiced gift for observing the nuances of those around him, Ralph is a passionate devotee of the works of Dylan Thomas. The poet's preserved home beside the estuary in the Carmarthenshire town of Laugharne, and indeed the streets of Swansea, have a deep spirituality for Ralph, and among his latest works is a personal tribute entitled 'The Boy with the Note'.

At Hereford his audience was treated to a dip into the album with 'The Conundrum of Time', a poignant song giving voice to Dylan Thomas's wife, the dancer Caitlin Macnamara, languishing in Laugharne while her husband was briefly in New York where he died in 1953. "The more I read about him, the more enthralled I became," says Ralph.

Of course the Ralph McTell his many, many fans know and love has far more to offer than anguished wringing of hands and melancholy. At Hereford, the audience learned how the young aspiring musician was to become a pen pal of the mighty Woodie Guthrie. "There were lots of letters," he explained brightly. "Well, letters from me to him - he didn't write back!"

The sea of delighted faces at the Courtyard was also treated to the debut stage performance of a whimsical composition entitled 'Tickling the Trout', joint credits doled out between F. Schubert and R. McTell. The applause was deafening when the latter music-maker delivered a fantastically intricate instrumental called 'Angie'.

Ralph later told the Journal that there's nothing punishing about the heavy schedule of tour dates he undertakes. Though he celebrated his 60th birthday two years ago - the Royal Festival Hall being a fitting venue for a performer of his enduring grit and talent - he greets his workload with relish. "I am driven by my musicality," he confesses. And how can he remain mellow night after night with the spotlight on him alone? "I'm like the proverbial swan: gliding along on the surface - but beneath the legs are going nineteen to the dozen!"