Teenage Kicks seems a long way from this fingerpicked acoustic instrumental – but it was the original inspiration for young Irish guitarist Cian Nugent.

I’ve long been a fan of those fingerpicking acoustic guitarists whose style is known as American Primitive – players like John Fahey and Robbie Basho – and British folk players like Davy Graham, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn.

I’ve long been a fan of those fingerpicking acoustic guitarists who play in the instrumental American Primitive style of John Fahey and Robbie Basho, and British folk players like Davy Graham, John Renbourn and Bert Jansch.

So it’s a pleasure to discover a new entry to the genre in the shape of young Irish guitarist Cian Nugent, whose unique take on the style is equally influenced by Television and The Velvet Underground, and the eccentric minimalist composer Charlemagne Palestine.

Nugent says his first influence was Teenage Kicks by The Undertones and he played in several rock and ska bands in his tens before gravitating to solo acoustic guitar in his twenties and developing a unique fingerstyle signature.

He released his first album, the wonderfully titled Childhood, Christian Lies & Slaughter, in 2008 but alternated his solo work with playing bass in a Limerick band called Sea Dog, founding another band called The #1s, and touring as a guitar duo with Steve Gunn called Desert Heat.

His second album, Doubles,  consisted of two side-long tracks, exploring dissonance and repetition and, after touring with psychedelic folk artists including Fern Night and Arborea, he released a single that paired one of his own compositions with a tune based on a song by former Black Flag bassist Chuck Dukowski.

In 2013 he formed a band, Cian Nugent & The Cosmos, including a drummer, bassist, electric violinist, organist and horns, and released a three-track album of ’60s/’70s-style progressive folk album called Born With The Caul, followed by Night Fiction, on which he sang for the first time.

This tune, When The Snow Melts And Floats Downstream, is the instrumental that introduced him when he was a teenager in 2007, and appeared on the Tompkins Square label’s compilation Imaginational Anthem Volume 3. 

The San Francisco-based label is a pioneer of American Primitive sounds and recently discovered another talented Irish fingerpicking guitarist in young blues player Muireann Bradley.

The label again features Nugent (who also writes the liner notes) on its latest release in the series, Imaginational Anthem Volume XIV: Ireland.