Margo Price @ Leaf, Liverpool, 21 Jan

If you were going to design a country singer by committee you could do a lot worse than use Margo Price as the model. Blonde and beautiful, with a hint of tragedy to accompany her sassiness, Price recalls the long line of female sirens who have helped to define the genre. It's the singer's back story that has really piqued the interest – tales of jail time, the loss of the family farm, divorce and the death of her child lend Price a gravitas that seems to transcend any accusations that she is merely rehashing the classic country tropes of her predecessors.

Mentioning her sad past would seem churlish were it not for the fact Price herself lists every misfortune in one of tonight's gig's stand-out tracks, Hands of Time, which is the kind of breathtakingly sad but defiant tune you'd expect to hear at the end of someone's career rather than the beginning.

"I made it through," she laughs nervously at the song's close to peals of applause from a crowd that stays in the palm of Price's hand throughout. A veteran of the Nashville music machine, despite being only 33, she knows how to put on a show; for every pin-drop moment of sadness, there's a raise-your-glass celebration of southern rock around the corner, with Price's backing band, the Price Tags happy to turn into Lynrd Skynryd at the drop of a Stetson. 

As well as her own songs, Price performs fine covers of Dolly Parton’s Jolene (to celebrate Ms Parton’s birthday) and Kris Kristofferson’s Me and Bobby McGee, with the latter’s 'Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose' serving as a poignant mantra for Price’s life and career. Stomping across stage or swapping grins with her husband on guitar, it's clears she's enjoying life back in Liverpool, which took her to its heart on her two previous visits with former band Buffalo Clover. Judging by the reception she receives, the city's ready to be heartbroken all over again.