On Valentine’s Day, City Vineyard’s small stage, backed by red velvet drapes and enveloped in the twinkling lights of New York’s skyline proved to be an ideal setting for an intimate, acoustic performance by Robyn Hitchcock.

With silver hair and his signature polka dot shirt, Hitchcock is something of a psychedelic folk wizard. As a guitarist, he favors open tunings which allow him to pluck and strum with a droning resonance that gives his music an ethereal quality and frees him to explore dreamy themes of love, space, time, insects, and reptiles. Hitchcock has mastered fusing power pop with surreal turns of phrase. “Ant Woman” is an oddity envisioning Audrey Hepburn as an insect. “Being just contaminates the void. Everybody!” The absurdity of singing along got big laughs.

Hitchcock spun humorous yarns about everything from romance to his preference for playing on this planet, “as opposed to Mercury.” He began with a dark and brooding number called “The Abyss.” “In the abyss, there are things that swirl before my eyes. They’ve got horns, they’ve got wings. They were born to tantalize.”

Hitchcock resides in Nashville, and illustrated the connection between British and American folk with his choice of covers beginning with “Tower Song” by Townes Van Zandt, “I Got The Hots For You” (which hearkened back to his work with the seminal Soft Boys), “Autumn Is Your Last Chance,” Bryan Ferry’s classic “More Than This,” and Bob Dylan’s “If You See Her Say Hello.”

Hitchcock was then joined by Emma Swift on vocal harmonies for a lovely version of “Let It Be Me” by the Everly Brothers and “I Used To Say I Love You.” He finished with “Olé Tarantula” and came back quickly for an encore of “You Don’t Know How Much I Love You” and “The Crystal Ship” by The Doors.

Whether accompanied by a full band or solo, Robyn Hitchcock always performs with brilliance, humor, and wit. His singular style makes every show a unique experience not to be missed.

—Mike Cobb