IF EVERY cloud has a silver lining then this plucky concert, live-streamed by folk duo  Ninebarrow, is certainly a bright spot during the covid-19 lockdown.

Based in Dorset, Jon Whitley and Jay LaBouchardiere have had to cancel four months of live shows due to the current emergency but, likely many musicians, they’ve also realised that they can perform at home and broadcast online.

Using their small dining room as a concert hall, with a backcloth masking the windows, the pair are openly nervous at the prospect of technology failure and because well over 2,000 people are tuned in through the Ninebarrow website —  far more than they might ordinarily entertain at a normal gig. It is, they admit, a “thoroughly weird” experience.

Yet despite a couple of anxious moments when they fear they might have been playing to a dead internet link, all goes surprisingly smoothly, with a minimum of technical hitches and no sound problems. The musical side of things turns out nicely, too.

They have a good chemistry and their perfectly matched voices blend with great harmony across a 15-song set that races by, despite spanning almost two hours with an interval.

Most of the material is English and very Dorset-focused, including impressive self-penned compositions such as Zunshine in the Winter — based on the words of the dialect poet William Barnes — Summer Fires, about midsummer celebrations on nearby Upton Heath, and Nestledown, inspired by the Dartford Warbler, a bird that’s been making a comeback across the county.

With no applause or any kind of feedback, a problem in these circumstances is what to say in the deathly silence that accompanies the end of a song and neither quite masters a way out of the void.

But after a “last” song, the traditional gallows number Prickle Eye Bush, the pair are relaxed enough to allow themselves themselves an unsolicited encore, Farewell Shanty.

There’s a lot to be said for the live-streaming of concerts, as there’s something undeniably attractive about lounging on your sofa, cheap beer in hand, with no annoying fellow punters to get up your nose.

The duo seem to enjoy the experience and the feedback in the accompanying chatroom is unanimously positive. So they’re contemplating another appearance, pencilled in for May 2.

It’ll be free, unless you want to make a donation, and it’ll definitely be worth tuning in to ninebarrow.co.uk/live on that date.