Dar Williams was the main attraction but this was an evening of two female singer/songwriters, two troubadours who both spend a lot of their lives driving the road alone.

Williams has known Lucy Wainwright Roche since Lucy was her nanny aged 13. Roche, whose dad is Loudon Wainwright III, not only opened the show and established a warm chatty atmosphere, she also joined Williams later for the magnificent Weight Of The World.

Williams can name drop Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, but she didn't. Her stage presence was intimate, her banter laugh out loud funny, and her songs intensely personal. That liberal progressiveness was there behind her entire performance but never in your face.

Williams’s latest album Emerald is just released, so there were lots of new songs as well as favourites such as February from her 20-year back catalogue.

She apologised for having "smoked the crowd like bees", anaesthetised us with so many quiet songs. No one minded.

Her vocal was sometimes raspy but this simply added to its colour. Roche's more melodic voice fitted perfectly for the crowd singalong, Iowa, before the punters left for home feeling soothed and satisfied.

The lady troubadours picked up their guitars and headed back to the road.

Three stars