Lizzie Reid @ The Glad Cafe, 1 June

In the backroom of the Glad Cafe in Glasgow, a small crowd has begun to gather for the first of Lizzie Reid’s three sold-out nights at the venue. This is Reid’s first headlining show of the year, but there should be no ring rust: she’s fresh from supporting Paolo Nutini in front of a huge, rhapsodic crowd in Oban a few nights earlier.

Before Reid steps onstage, we’re treated to an opening set from Tinyumbrellas. It’s a treat, with the English singer-songwriter lulling the growing audience with a short set that includes tracks such as Please Don’t Make This Weird and ending with the short and sweet minute-long ballad Tough to Be a Bug. It was calming, uplifting, and the perfect appetiser for what’s to come.

After a short calm, during which the room fills to capacity, Reid and her band enter the small, brightly lit stage and begin with the silky ballad Always Lovely. Clad in a white blouse and plain black trousers, the simplicity of her outfit contrasts with the density of her words.

She leads us through a maze of yearning and desperate affection, with ballads like Seamless and Soda Pop Stream feeling like they are being sung for us rather than at us. Between some songs Reid tells us how they came about, some inspired by lengthy periods of her life, and others fuelled by fleeting feelings of isolation and sadness, with lockdown mentioned as a trigger.

Around halfway through the set, Reid points out a piano located against the wall beside the stage and, as we, her captive audience, shift around in fairly unrealistic hopes of getting a prime view of the performance, she proceeds to play the striking How Do I Show My Love?, her newest release, before returning to the stage and performing the as-yet-unreleased Norah, a stunning tune that stays with you like a bruise. The likes of Company Car follow before Reid announces that the excellent Cubicle will be the last of the night, to murmurs of disappointment.

Reid and her band step off stage for less than a minute before returning and beginning their admittedly obvious encore with Tribute, before ending a fine night of music with her single Bible, the final chord being met with rapturous applause.

It would be pointless to make a claim as broad and trite as “Lizzie Reid is the new voice of Scotland”, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hold any truth. But the only voice Lizzie Reid must represent is her own, and she has beautifully here tonight. For an hour, in a small room in the Southside of Glasgow, she held the audience in the palm of her hand, gently rocking them back and forth with melodies of love, heartbreak, solitude and hope. Everything surrounding that hour – the support, the crowd, Reid’s band and, of course, Reid herself – was on-point.

Anyone who has the opportunity to see Reid play such intimate shows should do so soon, because it’s hard to see her crowds being so small for much longer.

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Lizzie Reid's new single Bible is out now orcd.co/lizziereidbible