What Howe Gelb imparts is a mixture of countrified blues, surf, rockabilly, punk and folk with free-form jamming and bursts of noise, all punctuated by asides, jokes and stories. Occasionally, he abruptly stops his performance to press play on the CD player - playing anything from the Breeders to discordant noise before launching back into the song with mischievous gusto.

The performance is as much a spoken word as a music gig, with Gelb often interrupting himself to reminisce about his hometown, his grandmother, about songwriting and it's effect on global warming (songwriters should embrace cover versions, it's good to recycle), about growing old. All topics are approached with the same easy manner, and are expounded with humour and the undeniable coolness of a man not readily given to pretension or contrivance. Gelb has a warm, genuine spontaneity and though he has no big secret to impart, he has given us a rare glimpse of an unselfconscious and unfettered imagination at work.