★★★★

There should be a new word in the vocabulary for the relationship between an audience and a Wainwright. It goes beyond rapport - its so warm and easy, you want to lap it up forever.

Martha, the leading female exponent of Wainwrighting, can’t help but make her audience laugh and feel close to her with her tales of staying up all-night modifying her own merchandise or how songwriters sent her duff tunes for her new album, keeping the best for themselves.

Of course chat only gets you so far but Wainwright also happens to have a voice dextrous, versatile and characterful enough to more than back it up. Highlights are many but the Jeff Buckley-esque Before The Children Came Along really shows that vocal daring, Come Home To Mama is a true tear jerker, and So Down a real barroom rocker in the best possible taste.

The real astonishing part of the performance is how she goes from goofing around to making beautiful art in an instant; there she is mugging expressions at the start of One Of Us and then she’s giving the audience goosebumps. She stumbles during a cover of Chelsea Hotel while dressed in a tour t-shirt and PJ bottoms only to then lead a sing-a-long with a helpful crowd.

Wainwrighting; an essence so potent record producers would kill to bottle it.