Their first release, Show of Hands (on cassette only), sold out over the course of their live shows. Playing every gig on the folk circuit they knew so well from their teenage years, they realised that audiences tend to favour familiarity over novelty. So the pair initially slipped original songs into a set of folk standards. But by the end of the decade the folk standards barely featured in their shows. This is testimony to Knightley’s ability to write original songs that become instant classics. For instance, The Galway Farmer has appeared in at least one list of traditional Irish tunes though Knightley wrote it in 1994.