“Growing up I listened to anything on the radio, but the music that has influenced me most since then is north Mississippi hill country blues.”

Pip Cowan’s musical journey took a life-changing turn when he was just 17 – a motorcycle accident near the family farm in Numurkah left him a quadriplegic.

“In the 22 years since I developed a passion for blues and despite my injuries figured out a unique and interesting way to play a diddley bow (one string cigar box guitar) using a screwdriver. I originally bought one as a souvenir, but eventually got tired of looking at it and learned how to play it.” He had previously played the lap steel guitar but had to give up due to shoulder pain.

His injury hasn’t held him back. Last year Pip Cowan visited the US, “I had a brief impromptu jam with a guy I met in a harmonica store in Clarksdale, Mississippi. It was the kind of moment I’d dreamt about.”