Ray Lamontagne, Southampton Guildhall

IS this what Bob Dylan must have sounded like when he could still sing? Ray Lamontagne is not a politician but if he were he would be a one-man manifesto, because his rasping, breathy passion stays with you well beyond the performance.

Kicking off with How Come, you may know it from The Film Devil Wears Prada, he plays his guitar, eyes closed, knees bent, like it's an extension of him.

We love him because he is troubled and turns pain into music and because he "can't tell the free world from a living hell" and he has a voice like lava and lyrics that could breathe life into a wax museum.

Okay there are some redneck derivations that remind you that he is a good ol' country boy from Maine, like the slide guitar, the chequered shirt and the beard, but somehow this just adds to his charm.

There is a Bob moment in How Come, an anti-war song and a lament for man killing man: "Love can be a liar and justice can be a thief and freedom can be an empty cup from which everyone wants to drink." But he is not Bob, he is Ray and he is damned good.

How come le man Ray can sing like this at the end of a hectic tour of the British Isles? Must be because he lives for his music and eschews the easy celebrity.