Date: March 22, 2007

The grace and elegance with which Jenny Reeve dresses seeps through into her percussion free, fiddle fuelled and folk based searching. The leading lady is flanked by a crafted guitarist that relaxes people to floor sitting comfort. Strike The Colours adeptly become the string that ties together the foraging heart of Ani Di Franco and the lush, crispness of Joan Baez and to a lesser extent, Joni Mitchell. 'Safety In Numbers' slowly whistles around maudlin reflection and crisp vocal projection, to create mind stroking reflection with a comforting instrumental slide, as if to mitigate the harsh, regretful lyrics. Customised CDs fly off the merchandise stall and Jenny Reeve retains the calm air of dignity that trickles through her material, as she sets up for her second shift as part of Malcolm's backing push.

It is only a few chords into The Proclaimers type vocal push of the defiantly pessimistic, featuring a positive splash of keyboard intervention from Jenny Reeve, here and there of 'We're All Going To Die'. That the realisation sinks in; the quaint and quirky Malcolm Middleton has not changed one bit since his other outfit Arab Strap burst onto the scene. This is even though he is now three albums into his searching solo career. To accentuate this viewpoint he, plus his roving and pinging backing outfit, idly strolls into another pessimistic parade of the indie/folk ilk, 'Love Death Depression Love Death'. Before electrifying things and bringing matters up to the feel-good plains of 'A Brighter Beat'. The dry humoured muso uses his ability to complain, something that the first two numbers draw out perfectly, to bemoan the warm beer and he coaxes audience members to queue up at the bar to buy him a drink. Of the assorted backing band, Jenny Reeve's swooning and slightly fuzzy keyboard and flighty fiddle element, provides buoyancy to the laid back, but varied sounds, throughout proceedings.

Middleton's ability to scrutinise life's failures, almost microscopically, is eerily drawn out in the slow, nourish piano trickled 'Four Cigarettes' and sombreness descends upon the evening once again. It is performed with earnest grit and the adept backing band plays a lead role in punctuating the life-hardy points that are being made. In true mood mixing fashion, we are treated to a no-nonsense romantic ballad, 'Fuck It I Love You'. Creating looks of contented awe just after the first few bristling guitar notes and soft percussion nudge is produced. Honesty and grittiness oozes out of the music and the mere presence of Middleton, who is the epitome of independent music. His oblique life focus is a theme that makes an appearance in the entire range of old and new offerings. For variety seekers, after a few stern but polite exchanges with the sound engineer, Jenny Reeve steps up to give a Bjork arguing with Tori Amos who's next to get on the bus, style vocal pinch to the hanging, but feisty 'Fight Like The Night'. The big and bold 'Superstar Songwriters', gives the encore and closing stages some oomph and it also provides the lead man the opportunity to show his fatter vocal range, something he does with impunity. Most importantly, tonight was about Scottish performers showing the likes of KT Tunstall that your accent is something to be proud of, so you shouldn't be ashamed to sing in it.

Rating; 4/5