Steve Pilgrim @ Leaf, Liverpool, 16 Mar

Grace is a funny thing in music. It's overused as a lyric, but underused as a commodity.  

Scouse songwriter Steve Pilgrim has it in abundance and so does his music. He's Paul Weller's drummer, but you'd never know it. Pilgrim is an unassuming melody maker who lets his magical songs slip their calling card into your palm as he shakes you by the hand on the way out. 

Launching his fourth solo album at Leaf in Liverpool, his waltz-time laments wash over a busy room. Backed by double bass, brushed drums and Rachael Jean Harris on ever-present harmony vocals, songs such as the gorgeous Put Them In A Box, the meditative Healing Now and the rattle'n'roll of Firecracker are delivered by a troubadour telling his tales with both strummed and picked acoustic guitar. So far, so singer/songwriter you might say... the rub? These delicate ditties stand out from the pack and the gig is full of toe-tappers, nod-alongs and head-turners. 

You can track Pilgrim's progress over the four records he's put out by the musicians he's now getting to appear on his albums: double bass legend Danny Thompson and Paul Weller provide colour and shape on new album, Morning Skies. There are lilting strings and muted horns on record, too, and it's a shame that the shades that suit Pilgrim's work best – a trumpet part here, a violin riff there – are absent tonight.

That minor gripe aside, the gig is a revelation that in these days of danger over grace, wounded ballads like Magic Strings and Love On Your Side can still find the solid air they need to make a home in the hearts of those who are still wide open to hearing new music.