As well as being a researcher, collector, writer and broadcaster, Dave performs English and Appalachian Old Time songs, ballads, and instrumental music on 5-string banjo, guitar and melodeon.

Blackthorn is an Irish, Scottish and English ceilidh and folk song band. They play lively, melodic Celtic tunes and good singalongs.  Each of the band members are multi instrumentalists, and the music is led by strong flute, whistle and fiddle melodies, backed by guitar and bouzouki rhythms and is contrasted with the sounds of concertina and their many other instruments.