Waxahatchee @ QMU, Glasgow, 30 Jul

Anna St. Louis manages the rare feat of being a quiet opener that can actually cut through a murmuring crowd, especially so at the QMU with its cursed bar that bleeds into the audience. She plays a selection of beautifully realised indie-country songs, her lilting voice blending perfectly with her twangy guitar, keys and the occasional bit of pedal steel. She makes a cover of Lee Hazlewood's Your Sweet Love her own and ends (in a bizarre bit of foreshadowing) with her fan favourite, Fire.

After coming out to a bit of Dolly Parton, Waxahatchee – Katie Crutchfield and her crack band – kick off with bombastic renditions of 3 Sisters and Evil Spawn. It's a theme throughout the evening that even songs with lighter arrangements on record are given extra heft in the live setting. The leap in Crutchfield's songcraft between 2017's Out in the Storm and 2020's Saint Cloud, and the related decision to get sober in 2018, is mirrored in tonight's setlist. There's nothing pre-2020 and we get the brilliant Tigers Blood in its entirety, as well as a few loosies from Crutchfield's side project Plains.

The close-knit song choices give the show a cohesive sound that allows the band to flex their musical muscles, particularly Spencer Tweedy (son of Jeff) on drums and Clay Frankel on guitar and vocals; he steps into the MJ Lenderman role on instant classic Right Back To It with natural aplomb. Nick Bockrath is mesmerising on the pedal steel and Eliana Athayde keeps things from getting too freeform with her steady bass work. Crutchfield is in good spirits, pleased to be back in Scotland after nine years away, giving some obligatory chat about Irn-Bru and even abandoning the guitar every now and then to serenade the enraptured sold-out crowd.

Lilacs brings big smiles despite the somewhat bleak subject matter and Tigers Blood closes the main set on a high. Brand new song Much Ado About Nothing opens the encore, sounding perfectly at peace with the new album, before 365 brings the house down. It's the highlight of the night and an unlikely contender for the best song named 365 released this year (sorry, Charli). As alluded to above, Fire also closes the Waxahatchee set, a yearning song full of desperation, but one that is starting to sound increasingly triumphant as times goes by.

This confident performance, along with the masterful Tigers Blood, show that the turn towards country that Crutchfield has taken since finding sobriety has enabled her to tap into the best songwriting of her career.