The name Justin Holland may not be familiar to many music lovers but it is cherished by classical guitarists, especially those who are eager to include 19th-century American pieces in their repertoire. On his new album, guitarist Christopher Mallett performs an array of solo pieces composed and arranged by Holland that find popular American songs rubbing shoulders with European sources.

Holland (1819 87) was a Black guitarist, composer and civil rights activist who was born a free man in Norfolk, Virginia, moved to Boston, studied at Oberlin College and settled in Cleveland, where he established himself as a musician and teacher. He wrote a seminal book in 1874, Holland’s Comprehensive Method for the Guitar, which became ‘the best-selling American music publication of the 19th century’, according to Kim Perlak’s engaging booklet notes.

The 14 selections on Mallet’s album comprise, as Perlak writes, a ‘journey through folk, church, parlour and dance songs that sing through the solo guitar’. The collection includes favourites – ’Tis the Last Rose of Summer, Home Sweet Home, Carnival of Venice – and lesser-known selections of equally charming personality and instrumental challenge.

Along with Holland’s inventive arrangements, which give the guitarist room both for poetry and showmanship, his compositional hand is on elegant display in two pieces. An Andante in C dances on light feet before heading into complex territory, and Variations on Lowell Mason’s Nearer, My God, to Thee evokes church singing to stirring effect.

Mallett plays all of the fare with nuanced artistry, savouring the beloved melodies and bursts of decorative material. He shapes the 12 variations in the Carnival of Venice fantasy with lilting and bold assurance – an affectionate tribute to a musician who inspired generations of guitarists.