The new year's honours included an MBE for "Robert James Copper, author and performer, services to folk music", which was greeted in folk-music circles with delight - and exasperation that it hadn't happened years before. Bob Copper, who was 89 last week, is a veteran from arguably the most celebrated singing dynasty in England. The Copper Family, from Rottingdean, East Sussex, may not have the commercial appeal or musical expertise of their Yorkshire counterparts the Watersons, but they have a unique history. They can trace their sturdy and wildly varied songs back to the 18th century, through the singing of Bob's father and farming grandfather - and they have kept them alive with contagious enthusiasm.

This London appearance, in a Euston pub home to folk institution the Cellar Club, should have been a major celebration for Bob, but he fell ill during a US tour in the summer and is still unable to travel, although he did manage a brief performance in Sussex last week. But the Copper Family has moved on yet another generation, and the current line-up consists of Bob's son John, daughter Jill and son-in-law Jon Dudley, joined here by three of his grandchildren. Singing to a packed club, they performed with a jovial, careful mix of easy professionalism and studied amateurism, standing for the first set and then, after returning from the bar, continuing to sing while sitting around a pub table, beer-glasses in hand.

John led proceedings, telling stories about life on the Sussex Downs, and the songs were performed in traditional family style, some in unison, some in harmony. The material ranged from Sussex carols to the farming song Two Young Brethren, and the stirring love songs Come Write Me Down and Banks of Claudy. The latter was "collected" from the family more than 100 years ago, at the start of the now-flourishing English folk revival - in which the Copper Family still play an intriguing role.