Richard Hawley @ The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, 17 Dec

Iona Zajac gets a lovely reception back in her hometown (she now lives in Dublin), for her brilliantly spun folk-rockers about mouldy fruit, Glasgow weirdos and great sex. Her versatile vocals range wildly like Circuit des Yeux, but there's a gaelic lilt to these songs, most clearly exemplified by a cover of the traditional Burning of Auchindoon.

Richard Hawley's recorded output often walks a fine line between his instincts as a classic crooner and the melodic rock of his arrangements. This has made for occasionally uneven or mediocre albums, as the comfort zone of AOR is an easier sell than the sort of Sinatra-esque tunes that lay every vulnerability bare.

There's a similar tension tonight as the existential meditations on life, love and middle-age are sometimes lost amid the (relatively) loud live set-up. Tellingly, the set is mostly made up from Further and Standing at the Sky's Edge, heavy on the rock and psychedelia, mostly ignoring gentler albums like the Mercury-nominated Coles Corner (bar the title track, which sounds excellent).

Image: Richard Hawley by Elliot Hetherton

But ultimately Hawley's voice does still sound great; his Roy Orbison aping has gotten more refined over the years and he's got a sound fully his own. He's had mostly the same band for years and they're a well-oiled machine, particularly Clive Mellor's exuberant harmonica on Time Is and Coles Corner or Jon Trier's spritely keys on Down in the Woods and Don't Stare at the Sun.

The headiest leap into guitar hero theatrics comes with the duo of encore songs, There's a Storm a Comin' and Heart of Oak. Both are extended, stretched and shredded into hard rock stompers to end the night on a barnstorming high. It's a safe, solid set, but with a voice like Hawley's, sometimes less is more.