It was my first visit to the very impressive Aberdeen Music Hall, but not my first time seeing the lovely Kate Rusby live. The last time was at the Darlington Arts Centre and it has to be said that tonight’s was something of a step up from that. Breathy smoke drifted through the beams cast by an impressive lighting set-up as Kate and her four bandmates took to the stage. With the briefest of Yorkshire how-do’s they were off into a beautiful set of songs covering a wide selection of their back-catalogue. The playing was outstanding with the venue giving the sound a very intimate nature, even where I was sitting off to one side of the stalls (not a bad seat considering I booked it about 6 hours before the start of the concert!).

Kate and her band © 6tee-zeven on Flickr

Throughout the evening she entertained the appreciative crowd with tales of their tour (they had played Wakefield Women’s Prison the week before), tributes to various band members’ Uncles, ruminations on the subject of twig tea (“It’s good for you but it does taste like twigs”) and her usual quirky song introductions.

The music as expected from her these days, and with the talented people in her band, was exquisite and sounded excellent in the surroundings of the music hall. Particular favourites of mine were The Old Man and the title track off her latest album Awkward Annie, Fare Thee Well off The Girl Who Couldn’t Fly from 2005 and I Courted A Sailor off her 2001 album Little Lights. The sans-Kate instrumental song that ended the first act was also excellent with the band, in particular melodean player Andy Cutting, stretching their legs.

As expected they was a quite deserved encore and they took the opportunity to play two tracks that Jennifer Saunders had requested they record for her latest sit-com, Jam & Jerusalem. The stand-out track was her light-hearted rendition of The Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society which was a great way to end a very pleasant evening’s performance.