Kate Rusby, Lighthouse, Poole

BATTLING a heavy cold, Kate called on sheer willpower and personality to make this a triumph.

Despite her croaky throat threatening to cause havoc this brilliant folk performer made the most of her stunningly beautiful voice.

It showed why the engagingly down-to-earth Yorkshire lass has done so much to popularise traditional English folk music. Songs of love and loss, gallant deeds, soldiers, sailors and the English countryside are straight from the nation's folk tradition, some self-penned, others arrangements of timeless classics. Kate delivers them with a purist's heart and a joyously contemporary spirit.

The set mixed new recordings like High on a Hill, Planets and her traditional reading of Blooming Heather with songs from her ever-expanding catalogue.

Sipping a herb tea between numbers, she entertained with cheerful banter about crazy airport bus drivers, knitting guitars and how she was convinced she was to play Bournemouth not Poole.