THE audience at Brighton’s Komedia must have been very glad that Sam Outlaw gave up his day job.

Donning a Stetson, adopting a cowboy stage name and leaving a job in advertising to write country songs could've ended in disaster, but Outlaw not only carries it off – he rides triumphantly into the sunset.

Attracting the attention of Ry Cooder in 2014, who went on to co-produce the singer’s first album Angeleno, Outlaw has enjoyed both critical and commercial success and picked up a slew of awards. Performing tracks mainly from second album Tenderness, what we got was an unashamedly sentimental collection of songs drenched with sweet harmonies, twanging Telecaster and pedal steel guitar, just as you'd expect from a traditional, well-established country artist.

And this is Outlaw’s strength: authentic through and through, he crooned his way through gentle tracks such as Ghost Town and Tenderheart, harmonised sweetly with Molly Jenson on the tight Say It To Me, and provided a lot of amusing, self-deprecating between-song banter (“If you don’t know the words, please don’t ****** sing along”).

The softer Americana introduced at the start was followed by an acoustic section, and he got the audience cheering in the final third with some up tempo numbers such as Keep It Interesting and Trouble. Supported by a six-strong backing band including Michaela Ann, a sassy country artist in her own right, Outlaw will be garnering many more UK fans with gigs such as this one.